TWLC #3 "The Season" by Sarah MacLean

Back of book summary:
"Seventeen-year-old Lady Alexandria Stafford doesn't fit into the world of Regency London-- she's strong-willed, sharp-tongued, and she absolutely loathes dress fittings. Unfortunately, her mother has been waiting for years for Alex to be old enough to take part in the social whirlwind of a London season so she can be married off to someone safe, respectable, wealthy, and almost certainly boring. But Alex is far more fascinated by adventure than romance.
Somehow between ball gown fittings, dances, and dinner parties, Alex, along with her two best friends, Ella and Vivi, manages to get entangled in her biggest scrape yet. It's a mystery brimming with espionage, murder, suspicion, and love."

 Okay, I seriously loved this book! It's set in Jane Austen-y times. I really enjoyed it. Unlike Austen's heroines, Alex is really not concerned with finding a husband and she is completely content with being single, much like Emma from Emma by Jane Austen.
This book also has some dark parts to it. There is this constant reoccurring theme/situation of a major character's father's murder and how he is dealing with his newly given title.
The way I've described this book to friends has been as a faster paced Austen novel. 


**4 out of 5 stars
Where to get it

TWLC #2 "For One More Day" by Mitch Albom

Back of book summary:
"For One More Day is the story of a mother and a son, and a relationship that lasts a lifetime and beyond. It explores the question: What would you do if you could spend one more day with a lost loved one?
As a child, Charley Benetto is told by his father, "You can be a mama's buy or you can be a daddy's boy, but you can't be both." So he chooses his father, and he worships him-- right up to the day the man disappears. An eleven-year-old Charley must then turn to his mother, who bravely raises him on her own, despite Charley's embarrassment and yearnings for a complete family.
Decades later, Charley is a broken man. His life has been crumbled by alcohol and regret. he loses his job. He leaves his family. He hits bottom after discovering that his only daughter has shut him out of her wedding.
And he decides to take his own life.
He makes a midnight ride to his small hometown, with plans to do himself in. But upon failing even to do that, he staggers back to his old house, only to make an astonishing discovery. His mother-- who died eight years earlier-- is still living there, and welcomes him home as if nothing has ever happened.
What follows is the one "ordinary" day so many of us yearn for, a chance to make good with a lost parent, to explain family secrets , and to seek forgiveness. Somewhere between this life and the next, Charley learns the things he never knew about his mother and her sacrifices. And he tries, with her tender guidance, to put the crumbled pieces of his life back together."

Okay, so Mitch Albom. He wrote Tuesdays with Morrie and Five People You Meet in Heaven. Fantastic books. But this tale, it didn't necessarily live up to them.  It was confusing and hard to stay with at times. Granted, I was in the eighth grade when I read it.
I feel like it was an idea he had one night, and decided to run with it. It was a difficult feat. At times, I felt like I was left wanting to know more.
But if you are a Mitch Albom fan, and have recently lost a loved one, I recommend it to you.

**3 out of 5
Where to get it

TWLC #1 "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Levithan

Back of book summary:
"One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two strangers cross paths. Two Teens with the same name, running in to very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, culminating in heroic turns-of-heart and the most epic musical ever to grace the high school stage."

I absolutely loved this book! Granted, the main reason I picked it out was because of John Green, but it is genuinely a great read. The two authors take alternating turns at telling the two stories, chapter by chapter.
It's a book about two teenage boys, both named Will Grayson. They are polar opposites. One is a depressed, homosexual boy whose only joy in life is his conversations with a stranger online. The other is a kid with only one real friend, Tiny Cooper. "Tiny Cooper not the world's gayest person, and he is not the world's largest person, but I [Will Grayson, 1] believe he may be the world's largest person who is really, really gay, and also the world's gayest person who is really, really large (Chapter 1, p 3)."
As you can see, it has very interesting and fun characters that are able to make you laugh.
About half-way though, the two Will Grayson's meet! YAY! But, it's in a porn shop...
This book was my second John Green Book (after Looking For Alaska), and he has this amazing ability. See when he writes, he's able to capture part of the human experience and put into words what it means to live and be human. That's what I love about John Green and his writing style. It's human-ness.

**4 out of 5 stars
Where to get it

*NEW PROJECT*

After a long absence, I have returned! I thought to myself, "Wow, I've read a lot of books... people should know." Thus, the workings of this brand new idea formed in my head. I have decided to give little, book-report-like, summaries of some of the fantastic books I've read.
Tonight will be the jumping off point. For, BEHOLD, the newly titled project:
"The Wondrous Literary Challenge,"
*or "TWLC" for short.

The Day in the Life: Taylor,16 9/10/2011

715: Begin to wake.

930: Actually wake, turn on TV in my room. Watch Dance Moms.

1200: Hungry, but stay in bed because I am lazy.

1230: Call my mother to ask for food.

1245: Mom comes home, food in hand. (Chicken tenders from Hardees because I'm cool like that) I decide to eat them down in the family room. (To spice up my life :P)

100: Continue watching Dance Moms from the family room.

130: Get on computer. I compute around the internet. (i.e. Tumblr)

330: Take a shower.

430: Begin watching Fright Night, illegally via internet.

530: Not finished with Fright Night, but hungry. Not going to wait for parent to come home, so I make myself a Hot Pocket.

535: Eat Hot Pocket and watch Fright Night.

730: Finish Fright Night, tumble around internet.

822: Decide to make blogpost.

BOOM! Here we are.

-Taylor Koch <-- Electronic Signature. :)

This Generation Part 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Awakening

Spring Awakening should be called this generation's musical, even though it takes place in 1891. They deal with problems that are relevant today.

• Sexuality- Hanschen and Ernst are in a gay love affair.
• Spirituality- Melchior is a self-proclaimed atheist(fully supported by his parents) in a community strongly based on Judaism.
• Abuse- Martha is sexually abused by her father.
• Suicide- Moritz had been failing school and was kicked out of his home, thus he killed himself via pistol.
• Abortion- Wendla is forced, by her mother, to have an abortion. She dies as a result.
• Teen Pregnancy- Melchior gets Wendla pregnant after unprotected sex.
• Failure- Moritz is unable to memorize Virgil because he is afraid to sleep at night. He has been having erotic dreams that cause him believe he is going insane.
• Love- Wendla and Melchior fall in love.

In all these situations, the problem is brought about by lack of information. The parents and teachers of the community were all afraid of the children "growing up." Hence Wendla's curiosity. She wanted to feel what her friend felt (Martha/abuse); she wanted to be with Melchoir.

Her naive willingness to experience her friends pains lead her to Melchoir. She has him beat her with a switch; though he is reluctant, he does so. He begins to take out his frustration on her then runs away ashamed of what he's done.

Melchoir is an atheist and is very mature by the community's standards. They fall in love, nonetheless. They have sex. Wendla, as naive as she is, doesn't realize it. She then becomes pregnant. Her mother, who doesn't want Wendla to even know how babies are made, finds out. She takes her daughter to an underground abortion "doctor." She'd rather her daughter have an abortion than take responsibility.

The abortion goes awry; it ends up killing Wendla. Melchoir, after already losing his best friend (Moritz, suicide), has now lost his love.

Goodbye Brown Hair, Hello There Ginger:)

I've only dyed my hair once, in 6th grade. I had gotten Blonde highlights and they were extremely ugly.

The only picture of me with the highlights is my 6th grade school picture. I don't even think we have any left. They were atrocious.

So now, instead of highlights, I plan on dying ALL of my hair. I would love to make it red. Not Crayola Crayon red. (I hate it when people color their hair colors that don't appear in nature, i.e. blue)

In addition, I want to grow out my hair, at least a foot long. Mainly because that's the required length it has to be to be eligible to be donated to Locks of Love , which I want to do. It seems like such a good cause/organization.

*Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.

I'm really excited about it.

To Do Before I Die

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=ddcp9n3v_7v3p55vhf

:D

http://teamstarkid.bandcamp.com/album/a-very-starkid-album

High School

Wednesday: Pretty good-- no 'big' kids to scare us wienies.

#lost: 3 times

Thursday: The upperclassmen came and got confused a lot. Misplaced my agenda. Being me, I got extremely nervous because my planner had my schedule and a map of the school.

#lost: 2 times

Friday: Jessica and Beauty had my planner. Apparently, I left it in the commons during lunch the day before. Homework in Geometry AND English. I never thought I'd say this, but, I miss Miss Joseph's class(it was so much easier). P.E.: Mr. Brown is AWESOME!

#lost: 0 times

Right after school, I went to the DMV and took the test for the permit for the third time and guess what........

I Passed!!!!