May the School Year be Ever in Your Favor (and books)

The weekend is back! My first two days of school went splendidly, thank you to all of you who wished me luck!

It's exhausting waking up so early. For my school we have to wake up really super early and my alarm clock is right by my head and extremely loud. So it was kind of painful being jarred from sleep. My sister (I share a room with her) teases me because this morning, as soon as the alarm went off, I turned it off and rolled over again.

Which is true, but hey, isn't that what most people would do?

My science class is going to be awesome, I'm certain! The teacher seems really nice and she says that she won't give much homework, which is great because my Geometry teacher gave us homework on the first day :P

So, I know most of you have school coming up pretty quickly and I'm wishing y'all (do I bother you by using my Southern words?) luck. Hopefully your year will be not a good one, but a great one.

Meanwhile, I am excited for tomorrow because I have a birthday party to go to....! And I get to sleep in, too-- you wouldn't believe how fast the early-rising catches up to me.

Oh! Book recommendations! Since now people are commenting on my blog I feel I can ask that without knowing I will get no replies. So, if you have any recommendations, go ahead. I always love to read new books. (However, I know someone will tell me to read the Infernal Devices series because I'm forever getting told to read that: I'm not allowed to read them, sorry.)

I'm thinking about putting book reviews on this blog, what say you? I think it's a good idea.

Lots of love and let the school year be ever in your favor!

California, Books, and Miscellaneous Happenings

I'm going to California in four days! And I'm so excited!!!

I get to go on an airplane, which is pretty much one of my favorite things ever. I love airports. My parents, not so much. But I guess it's more stressful for adults to have to go through customs and the like.

I got three books to read on the flight there. On the way back, maybe I'll convince my parents to get me even MORE books.

I got:

• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (one of the BEST titles EVER-- even though it wasn't originally titled as such)
• Murder on the Orient Express also by Agatha Christie (one of her best!)
• Black by Ted Dekker (a Christian author, and the book looks amazing!)

I was going to get a Sherlock Holmes book, but I was already getting two mysteries (well, I don't know if And Then There Were None really counts as a mystery, more of a thriller, but still), so I got a fantasy/ suspense book instead. 

The only problem is that I have to WAIT until TUESDAY so I can read the books and it is slowly killing me! Not really, but ugh! They are right now sitting in my room right where I can see them every single time I walk into the room. 

In other news, I got a Pottermore account (that's for all you Harry Potter fans). It's so great already-- I got sorted into Ravenclaw which, I think, fits my personality well. I would've loved to be in Gryffindor but it is so not gonna happen. I'm waaaayyy too cowardly. (Sigh.)

My dog is sick and keeps throwing up. No fun for anyone. She ate some of that plastic that goes around a chicken and now is torturing everyone with retching noises and the disgusting smell of... you know. 

It's a rainy day. Otherwise we would put her outside in the backyard. I fell kinda sorry for her. 

I got new books! Not to mention that I'm almost 4 full-length chapters into my book; the one I'm writing. I could actually publish it once I'm done, I mean, it's like 10,000 words already. 

Long post, sorry :) There's a lot to say. 

First Sentences

As my first official blog post, it would seem only fitting that I write about first sentences. Lately, I've been finding first sentences in books that I check out in the library. I've never really paid attention to them, but the first sentence is, I think, one of the most important parts in a book. It draws you in, even if you don't consciously realize it.

These are the books I checked out this week:

• Mossflower by Brian Jacques
• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
• The One Safe Place by Tania Unsworth
• She is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedwick
• How my Private, Personal Journal Became a Bestseller by Julia DeVillers
• Skellig by David Almond

Out of all of these (yes, I read a lot) my favorite first sentence was in The One Safe Place. "It was tree o' clock in the afternoon before Devin was done digging the grave." This is such a simple first sentence that you almost don't notice it. And then you think: Wait a minute. Why is he digging a grave? Who's the grave for? What does it mean, tree o' clock?

Well, first off, I can answer the last question. It means three o' clock, but Blogger has some glitch that won't let me go back and correct typos without correcting everything else. Oh well.

But I digress. The point is, that is a cool first sentence to open up a dystopian book. But I did notice that there are a lot of other ways to begin a novel. Mossflower begins with description. "Late autumn winds sighed fitfully around the open gatehouse door, rustling brown gold leaves in the fading afternoon." She is Not Invisible begins with, "One final time I told myself I wasn't abducting my little brother". I love this one too. How my Private, Personal Journal... jumps right into the story with someone talking: "Thirty seconds! Thirty seconds until showtime, everyone!" Miss Peregrine's... begins with a somewhat cliche but still pretty good first line: "I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen."And last but not least, Skellig starts out with "I found him in the garage on a Sunday afternoon", which is a great first line as well.

Anyway, this is my "musing" for today, and I will return.