http://merissalong.wordpress.com/

I think I like it.

I admit it! The last time I posted was, uh, January, I think. Around the beginning of January.

To give a review, it was basically about my (maybe) changing back to blogger from wordpress and how I would tell you guys when I decided. Then I disappeared.

I tried to make sure you guys knew that I didn’t suddenly die by continuing to comment on some blogs, although I admit that I did discontinue a lot of stuff. I assure you, it’s all explainable.

I am

Judging from the last fragment, I was called away in a gigantic emergency. But don’t worry, nobody died, or anything like that. I think I was supposed to wash the dishes.

And by no means can you ignore the dishes!

Anyway, yes, I am still deciding between wordpress and blogger; although right now I’m leaning toward wordpress, because I do love its beautiful dashboard layout.

But I’m not going to decide anytime soon. Because I have decided to stop blogging for a while. Or I think so. (Maybe this marks the beginning of starting to post again? I know I’ve just read Laurie Halse Anderson’s Chains, so…)

By the way, even if I do start blogging again, it’ll probably be pre-written on paper and then quickly typed up, read over, and posted, as I have decided I spend way too much time on the computer, and I need to stop.

So I’m not sure if that’s the best explanation ever, but I hope I have explained it (although thinking about it, the explanation is only in the previous paragraph. But who’s going into details? I am not. Hopefully you will not either. Humor me, your friend who is currently inflicted with heavy indecision.)

Merissa

PS – This has nothing at all to do with anything, but I have to mention that the weather forecast predicts snow. Snow! And perhaps school will be delayed tomorrow, so I can sleep in. Lovely, lovely snow. (But I do not want them to cancel school, because then they’d take another day off spring break! Yes, another. They have already taken one day off. ) But on a positive note: Go snow!

This has nothing to do with wordpress. I love wordpress. Everything is so neat and packed together, and some things are confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, everything is so nice and wonderful.

WordPress only has one sad problem: it’s themes. A lot of them are pretty and fun. But while I really like my current one, it doesn’t quite feel like home. It takes a long time to find something that feels like home. Sometimes you have to put two together, and manipulate the HTML by yourself (although I find that is sometimes fatal, as I am clumsy with such stuff. But sometimes it works! )

But sadly enough, wordpress isn’t as flexible as that.

Although that is really the only problem I find with wordpress, I find it a pretty big problem. It is hard to do stuff to something that doesn’t look like yours.

So I may be switching to blogspot.

I don’t know, but I think I’ll start working on it. I’ll say something if I move. Or if I don’t.

Merissa

P.S. Just throwing this out there: even if I don’t change, I’ll probably change the title. I love reading, but I love other stuff, too. So there’ll probably be a lot more normal stuff.

Here is a poll. The question is, basically, what books do you prefer to read? Juvenile, Young Adult, or Adult?

For those of you curious, I would choose YA books. I do read Juvenile and Adult sometimes, but not nearly as much as young adult.

Merissa

The most expensive thing I ever bought was probably this old manual typewriter I have. I don’t ever use it, because it is so loud and cannot even compare to a laptop, where it SAVES your work. I don’t remember what I spent on it, but I got it at a yard sale and so it is not even new.

The second thing I am not really telling you. I am asking you. What does it mean when, if you teacher asks if anyone got any good books over break, everyone laughs as a response?

Don’t worry. I don’t really want you to answer that (although if you do, I hope you answer that it is not a good thing). But I am hoping that perhaps there were some people who did (not including me), and they simply did not speak up, perhaps too engrossed in that new book(s). You can always hope.

You know what? I think 2009 will be a bloggy year for me. I am posting even more than I expected.

Merissa

Summary: It’s 1907, and sixteen-year-old Julia Hamilton is excited when she learns of her father going to the middle east. As she has lived her entire life in England, she wishes for adventure and convinces her father to take her with him, although he is reluctant at first.

Julia expects adventure. She gets much, much more. She meets Edith, a woman who frequently travels in these parts and collects plants; Grahm Geddes, an English student, passionately (and dangerously) mixed in politics; and Paul Louvois, a French antiques collector who might be smuggling valubles out of the country. Julia must decide who she will trust and what she is willing to do.

I think: I liked this book very much. The writing was detailed but easy to follow, and the plot was intriguing. I had some suspicious about the result by the middle of the book, which turned out to be correct, but that didn’t really ruin the book.

I do love Historical Fiction. I find textbook history tiresome at times (who can stand all those confusing scenes of war?) but historical fiction can bring me into the story. So I was a little disappointed when there was no “Author’s note” explaining the history or similar thing at the end of the story. That was probably one of my only complaints about the book.

The other ones contain spoilers, so I won’t mention them, except to say that the so-called villain was probably one of my favorite characters of the book (and I didn’t think that person was that bad). Although that is normal, because I seem to have a liking for villains.

Personally, I think this year was a fantastic year for books. And that is why I would suggest that people read book blogs (not necessarily this one), because it opens you up and introduces you to books you otherwise wouldn’t have read.

This year had such gems as The True Adoration as Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson, and Chalice by Robin McKinley, and Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale (illustrated by Nate Hale, no relation). It was also the year I discovered books not published this year but great nevertheless – like Just Listen by Sarah Dessen and Undercover by Beth Kephart.

So I enjoyed you very much, 2008. And I cannot wait to see what 2009 will offer!

Merissa

And I have done some investigating. I have discovered that I usually write only ONE post per week. (For those of you curious, the info came from the calendar on the sidebar. I am tremendously good at investigating.)

Unfortunately, due to the slowness of my computer, I have been on here for a frighteningly long time, and I should really get off the computer and do something else.

To get to the point, I officially declare that I shall write more than one post per week. I am announcing it on here, because the safest way to make sure I finish something is to declare it to the world.

I would say more, except the timer has just beeped. I can just hear it shouting for me to get off. So I shall, just to humor it.

Merissa

P.S. In case you are wondering, I am writing my new year’s resolution list right now. I probably will post the entirety of it by next week or so.

Henry Smith’s father says, If you build your house away from Trouble, Trouble will never find you.

But Trouble comes careening down the road one night in the form of a pickup truck that strikes Henry’s older brother, Franklin. In the truck is Chay Chouan, a young Cambodian from Franklin’s preparatory school. THe tragedy sparks racial tensions in the school – and in the town where Henry’s family has lived for generations

Caught between anger and grief, Henry does the only thing he feels he can: he sets off for Mt. Katahdin, which he and Franklin had planned to climb together. One July morning, he leaves for Maine with his best friend and the lovable stray, Black Dog, in tow. But when they encounter Chay Chouan on the road, fleeing demons of his own, Henry learns that turning a blind eye to Trouble only brings Trouble closer

- from the front flap

That is a very good summary. I tried to think up my own, but I couldn’t think of anything better than that one.

Pages: 297

My Review: This book was really, really, really good. All the characters were well developed, and the plot was brilliant. Really brilliant. My only complaint was that it went rather slowly. It took me a week to pick up the book after I’d read the first chapter, and I didn’t get hooked until the fourth. And even then, I could easily put it down.

There’s a lot of description and telling in this book. But it evens out, and I can’t help liking the tone very much. It’s hard to describe, but it lets Henry tell almost, with more revelation than if Henry had been narrating (first person should only tells you what the person narrating is aware of) and more feeling than many first person books.

Three related holiday stories by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle:

Beautiful presents wrapped in ribbons, and multicolored lights glittering in the night through the falling snow. A Christmas Eve snowstorm transforms one small town into a romantic haven, the kind you only see in movies. Well, kinda. After all, a cold and wet hike from a stranded train through the middle of nowhere would not normally end with a delicious kiss from a charming stranger. And no one would think that a trip to the Waffle House throught four feet of snow would lead to love with an old friend. Or that the way back to true love begins with a painfully early morning shift at Starbucks          

-from the back

I adored this book. Yes, it was kind of predictable, but it was very sweet and romantic, and also, I am very excited for the holidays. (See the snow!) This was a lovely holiday book.

I felt like I could relate to all the characters – Jubilee, Tobin, Addie, and all their friends. All three stories are connected, and I thought that was so cool – the way they all had something to do with each other, but they had no idea that they did. And how everyone -yes, everyone – has their own stories. That was one of the coolest parts.