Wow, This Slump Is Worse Than I Thought It Was.

Well, it's not so much a slump as the fact that I've been SO BUSY. I had winter formal to go to, homework to keep up with, swim practice, and now to top everything off I'M SICK.

Actually, having this fever-flu combo thing is what's allowing me to post; I have nothing better to do. I mean, sure, I could get caught up on homework, but who would want to do that? That might make me sicker.

Although it's probably not possible for me to get sicker, since I can barely recognize my voice as it is from my throat being so raw. And I'm half-delirious from fever (I walked into a wall yesterday) so please excuse any typos or random ramblings. Because I'm sure there'll be a few.

So now, onto the books I've been reading!

Starting with: Uncle John's Triumphant 20th Anniversary Bathroom Reader by The Bathroom Readers' Institute, apparently. I didn't know they had an institute for that.

This book is FILLED with random knowledge, and it's like the 15th in a series. Thanks to Uncle John, I now know Cockney English, some of the dumbest celebrity quotes ever (yes, one of them was from Britney Spears), the history of bread around the world, and a few words to sound smarter. Now, this may not seem that important, but I assure you some of this knowledge is going to come in handy someday.

Okay, maybe not, but still, it was really interesting. Great book.

Number two (no pun intended): The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh.

Okay, this isn't the cover on my book, but I couldn't find a picture of that cover anywhere because my copy is an advance proof (doing community service at the public library has its advantages). My cover is all black with just three colored circles right above the title: green, red, yellow. Like a messed up traffic light. I like the simplicity of it.

This book follows Jack, a boy living with his father after his mother's mysterious death. After being almost killed by a car, Jack keeps running into weird strangers who seem to know something about his mother. His father sends him to a doctor in New York, where his mother died, and while at the train station he meets a girl, Euri.

Euri gives him a tour of the New York underground (hence the title) and pretty soon Jack is uncovering secrets about his family he never dreamed could be true.

This book was pretty good, for children fiction; kind of uncomplicated as far as subplots and storylines go, but that was part of the beauty of it. And the end keeps you guessing up until the last pages... it's one of those books where there is a happy ending, even though it's not in the way you might want it to be, at first.

Okay, last one for now: Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland.

I have to say, this book confused me until about 2/3 of the way through, and then suddenly I GOT IT.

The book starts off with this man talking about his colleague, who has shown him this painting that looks very much like an original Vermeer. In fact, his colleague claims it is. But why has he kept it hidden all this time? Apparently, his father stole it from a Jewish family during the Holocaust and he thinks it's too late to return it.

From then on, the book traces the history of this painting, chapter by chapter, showing how it came into all these people's lives since it was painted. The ending's bittersweet, and sort of sad, but all in all it's a good book.

And the language the author uses to describe these families' lives is beautiful in itself; the imagery and the storyline is brilliant, and you'd never guess where the painting's come from, how it's been passed on from person to person. It's almost like Sid Fleischman's Seed Folks except the people never interact with each other. The painting is what ties them all together in history.

Well, enough ranting. I'm going to go lie down with more movies and possibly annotate a little (but probably not) and maybe finish my book later (definitely).

This morning I watched Panic Room, with Jodie Foster and SURPRISE! Kristen Stewart. I remember being like 8 and wanting to see this SO BADLY but knowing it was R and I'd probably never see it. And now I have! Seriously though, look at how young she was:
Crazy! And even at this age, she was still only able to play that one type of character: the aloof victim. Have you ever noticed that? How she's only able to be that person? Like in Speak, or Twilight. I don't remember Zathura being this bad, though.

Whatever. Time to go occupy myself elsewhere.