Arashi - Truth

I love this song. A friend of mine introduced me to K-Rock and J-Pop (Korean rock music and Japanese pop music) a couple of years ago and I fell in love with this song when she sent me the link to it. The sad thing is that they aren't very well known here in the States, it seems, and this was practically impossible to find on YouTube because the official PV (promotional video) was taken down some time ago. So, enjoy the music, ignore the video. It's just Kingdom Hearts...

Delain - Invidia

I found this song about a week ago via Pandora on my phone. It played on the main channel I listen to and it was so good that I had to e-mail myself before I lost track of it. It really fits a couple of the characters I write and I love the name of the song itself. The word is fun to say, that's for sure. And it's a pretty word. Invidia actually means 'envy: spite and resentment at seeing the success of another (personified as one of the deadly sins),' which I think is actually a pretty interesting definition.

Well...

It's been a while since I blogged about anything.  Heck, it's been a while since I logged into this account to do anything.  I haven't really had a whole lot to say, I suppose.  Things have been a big crazy at points - we went to an amusement park at the beginning of the month and I've been cleaning my room while attempting to make a dent in my other goals.  So far, my room is a lot cleaner.  Well, my books are organized, mostly.  I've been trying to get through a bunch of those, too.  So far, five books this month and I'm in the middle of another one right now.  Things have been a little busy, really.  I've been trying to write, on top of all of the other stuff I've been doing.

Today was a big day as far as the cleaning went.  I had a bunch of boxes that were just sitting in my room that had stuff in them - they're all ready to go to the storage locker except for one, which I'll be working on when I go back upstairs later.  I feel like I've really made a dent today as far as that goes.  It's empty under my bed now and I've gotten a bunch of clutter put away on my dresser and everywhere else.  I'm pretty proud of myself, really.

Other than that, the only major thing that I can think of is the season three finale for Sanctuary.  I love the show, but I hate the finales because they are ALWAYS cliffhangers.  Always.  Even the mid-season finale was a blasted cliffhanger.  I got to that one right after the next episode came out, though, so that one wasn't a big deal.  This one, though, I have to wait until fall to see.  Ugh.  Not cool.  And one of the other shows I watch is on the bubble right now.  There's no news as to whether or not it's been renewed or canceled.  Really kind of annoying, if you ask me.

Anyway, I'm going back to writing...

Review: Solitary

I should probably start out by saying that this is not the kind of book that I usually read.  I'm a fantasy/sci-fi kind of person, mainly.  I don't read a whole lot of YA (Young Adult) stuff anymore with the influx of everything vampires, starting with the infamous famous Twinkle Twilight Saga.  Vampires are not my thing, but that's a tangent that I don't need to go on.

Solitary was pitched to me as Travis's take on Twinkle by the author himself.  I took a brief two-week class with him through my school in January (which I loved), and one of the things he did was give away a free book to anyone who wanted it.  After we chatted after the class for a while, he said that I would love this book.

Boy, he was right.  I was hooked on it before I was even done with the first chapter.  I couldn't put it down.  I was, quite unfortunately, interrupted and forced to go to bed in the middle of it.  I was not pleased by that, to say the least.  Anyway, when I finally did get a chance to finish it, I couldn't put it down again.

Chris Buckley is a normal kid who moves to a town called Solitary in North Carolina after his parents split up.  There, he meets a mysterious girl named Jocelyn who is the most beautiful creature he has ever laid eyes on.  Their relationship has a very interesting dynamic - one moment they're friends, then the next she pushes him away.  As Chris becomes more involved with her, things start happening.  For one thing, he decides to go down this hole in the neighbor's yard.  Not a good idea, Chris.  Suddenly, a creepy voice floats out of the darkness, and Chris bolts because it scares the heck out of him.  Much later: new creepy hole beneath the cabin.  The creepy voice returns, saying 'I see you, Chris.'  It scared me half to death, but in a good way. 

Between said dark hole and creepy/scary/probably demonic voice and something else that happens, I was scared half to death.  I have never been so scared after reading a book.  The weird thing?  I loved it.  I don't know why, but this seemed like a good kind of scared.  I wanted to know what was going on.  I wanted to know what was happening and I was really mad at Travis when the book ended because it just wasn't fair.

I found Chris's narration easy to read and very easy to get into.  It was like I was actually Chris.  I felt his pain when he was upset and I could easily relate to everything he felt.  He was a great narrator and an awesome character in general.  I really felt bad for him because he was really the only responsible one in the house with his mom acting as she was...which was probably because of the divorce.  Then there's his missing uncle.  It's like he disappeared without a trace.  Yet another thing for Chris to wonder about as he has to get used to a new town, new friends, and people acting weird.

Then there's Gus.  He was a good character and a believable bully.  I didn't like him because of that, but I think he really made Chris's situation really realistic.

I really liked Jocelyn, too.  She was another really great character and she was really sympathetic.  I really felt bad for her as things went on and how things went down as time went on.  Her relationship with Chris was really well done and she seemed very real.

Overall, I really loved this book.  The plot was amazing and left me hanging on every word.  I fell in love with the characters and I want to know what's going to happen next.  This book easily rates five stars out of five for me.


Yes, it's better than Twilight.

And now, I'm going to go bother my mom to make an Amazon order.  I want Gravestone...

Books I Finished in May

Things have been soo crazy for the last couple of weeks.  Being home makes little difference in how busy I am, it seems.  Unfortunately, it also meant that I didn't have to read as much as usual, even though I was in Florida for a while.  I ended up with only these books read...

The Mists of Avalon
Warbreaker
Solitary

They were all really good.  The Mists of Avalon was partially for class - we read the first part of it for Arthurian Legends, but I read the rest of it even though I didn't have to.  Warbreaker was amazing.  I read that one while I was on vacation and I loved it.  Brandon Sanderson did it again.  He's really a brilliant author.  Solitary was also excellent.  I have a review for that coming eventually (I'm in the process of cleaning my room, so I don't have that much time on my hands).  All I can say is that it really evoked everything it was supposed to.  Travis scared the heck out of me at one point and there was a point I nearly burst into tears.  It was so good that I can't wait to get my hands on the next book of the Solitary Tales series.  More on that later, though.

Till I Forget About You - Big Time Rush

I love things song, and the band. They're really awesome.

Yes, I'm a sucker for good boy band pop. BTR (Big Time Rush) and BSB (Backstreet Boys) are some of my favorites. Plus, their music is really upbeat, which a lot of my music isn't...