Historical Fiction v. Historical Fantasty

One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone says, "Read this historical fiction books, it's super good!"  Then when I *attempt* to pick it up and it's fantasy, I get so mad.  Historical fiction is a realistic novel that is set in the past.  Historical fantasy is a fantasy novel that is set in the past.  Some examples of historical fiction would be The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.  Some examples of historical fantasy would be Clockwork Angel (and the rest of the Infernal Devices trilogy) by Cassandra Clare and A Great and Terrible Beauty (and the rest of the Gemma Doyle trilogy) by Libba Bray.

So this was basically just a rant but oh well.
-Catherine

Summer Reads

They're many definitions of 'summer reads' so I'll give mine:

Summer Reads: Contemporary/YA/Fictional books set around or in summer.  The book should have romance and maybe some fluff.  Summer reads should be fluffy, not death and blood like seen in many Dystopian and Fantasy books.  Fluff, romance, joy, happiness, and love should be in a summer read.  Appropriate for reading by the pool and at the beach, but also good for 2am after you're done crying over a non-fluff death book.  

That is an award winning definition, I shall accept my awards later on.  Anyways, I'm going to go about this in the format as shown in Catherine's Top 3 Most Anticipated June Book Releases and in our combined May Book Haul. This format has a picture of the book, title, author, and the link to its Goodreads page. 

   1. Great by Sara Benincasa 

   2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 

3. Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira  

4. Exile  by Kevin Emerson  

5. The Truth About You and Me by Amanda Grace

6. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green 

7. To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

8. Everything Leads to You by Nina Lacour 

9. Shine by Lauren Myracle 

10. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver 

11. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz 

12. This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith 

These are some summer reads that are on my shelf, and I will be reading this summer.  I've already read The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Love Letters to the Dead, To all the Boys I've Loved Before, An Abundance of Katherines, Shine, and a different book by Jennifer E. Smith and Lauren Oliver and I loved them both.  Happy reading!

~Kate

10 Things to do this Summer

Here's a list of some things you should try to make your summer unforgettable! 

1.) Go stargazing by yourself or with some friends. It's a beautiful thing to do on a clear night. You can drive out of town and sit in the back of a truck, or just put a beach towel out in your front yard! Either way, it's a lovely thing to do. The stars are so very beautiful!

2.) Read a good book. It can be you starting a new series, or revisiting an old favorite. Books are a wonderful way to spend a rainy or too hot summer day! Plus, when you're home a alone and board, you're never truly alone if you have the characters and adventures in the pages of a book in your hands! I love to read until the early hours of the morning.....

3.) Have a picnic. Pack some sandwiches and lemonade and meet your friends at the park! Bring a picnic blanket or even a beach towel and chat with your friends in the shade of a tree! It's a wonderful way to feel refreshed and a wonderful way to hang out with your friends! (You might also get a nice tan!!)

4.) Go to the pool. This is very cliché but still very fun! It's a good way to cool down in the summer heat, and extremely fun and relaxing with friends!

5.) A summer shopping spree! Who doesn't love new summer clothes? Buy new battening suits, dresses, shorts and all the pretty summer clothes! I personally recommend Urban Outfitters and Charlotte Ruse for stylish and comfy summer clothes.

6.) Have a lemonade stand. I seem to have a thing for cliché things, but they can be very fun. Lemonade stands can get you some extra cash and gives you something to do when you're home this summer.

7.) Start a new TV series. This can possibly ruin your life and will make you want to go in tumblr and reblog everything about the show. Some good recommendations are: Gossip Girl, Awkward, Merlin, Sherlock, Dr. Who, Once Upon a Time, Revolution, Pretty Little Liars and Teen Wolf! I'm going to start watching some of these shows this summer!

8.) Go on a road trip.  This can be a family road trip to the beach, or a road trip to a water park with some friends! It doesn't even have to be a big road trip, it can be an hour ride in the car to go to the nearest lake, park or beach... which leads me to my next suggestion...:

9.) Go to the beach! Tacky, I know, but a very fun thing to do during the summer. It can be a couple of days, or just a day trip to the beach depending on where you live. The beach is a fun yet relaxing way to spend some time. Plus CUTE SHIRTLESS BOYS!! (I'm a little boy crazy...) Also, it is great to sit on your beach towel, read a good book while listening to the waves, and get a nice tan!

10.) My final suggestion is try something new and have fun! Maybe pick up a new hobby such as drawing or baking.  Maybe even do something very different like getting your hair dyed (I like to dye my hair, it's very fun to try different colors.) Meet someone new, try the new coffee place in town or maybe a new restaurant that you wouldn't normally go to.  Try and experience new things so maybe you can find out who you are.  Summers are for change, right?

Sorry for the very late post, my grandma has been in town for the past few days.  This Saturday I'm going to try to upload a post but it might not happen because I will be spending a few days at my friends house because my family has to go somewhere because of family sickness.  I'm going to try to write a post tonight and have Catherine post it on Saturday if she would be so kind as to do so.

~Kate

Photo credit: The lovely land of somewhere on Tumblr

How to convince your parents to do something that you want to do but they don't want to do.

Wow. Long title. I was recently trying to convinced my mother to bring me to a particular book festival.  I eventually persuaded her by saying, "I'll be getting out of the house for a weekend and meeting people of my race!"  She agreed.  Here was a short lesson on "How to convince your parents to do something that you want to do but they don't want to do."
-Catherine

Kiera Cass Book Signing.

I was lucky enough to attend a Kiera Cass book signing.  I went to the stop and saw a Q&A and Kiera Cass signed novels.  During the Q&A someone asked Kiera about what she is currently working on.  The book sounds interesting but it's a secret so... shhhh.  Not much happened that isn't spoiler-y so bye non spoiler-y people.


IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE ONE SHOO!
Find us on twitter.

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So when Kiera was signing my novels i asked her a question.  This is how it went:
ME: If you had to write a prequel novel from any of the characters perspectives who's would you choose?
KIERA: Probably Celeste because I think it'd be interesting to explore more of her life since I obviously can't do a sequel like that since she's dead....but also Marlee is a really cool character to write about. Possibly May but I feel like the whole book would just be a bunch of giggles. I really don't know...

-Catherine

The Fault in Our Stars Movie Review!

Myself (Catherine) and Kate went to a viewing of The Night Before Our Stars.  If you don't know what that is, just pretend it was an early viewing with perks.  So here we're going to state our opinion on the movie.

Catherine:
I was very hesitant going into a movie that had no phenomenal clips.  I enjoyed it a great deal after the fact though.  I DIDN'T CRY.  Let me get that out of the way.  It was enjoyable all the less.  For such a short book and such a long movie, they cut out clips.  It was disappointing in the ways that some lines from the book and some scenes were cut out.  I felt like some characters played larger roles and some played smaller roles than in the book.  Overall I enjoyed the movie.
Wow, that was scatter brained.

Kate:
Unlike Catherine, I did cry. A lot. I started crying about 15 minutes into the movie and I didn't stop until after the bonus Q&A with the cast. I did think it was a good movie and very true to the book. However, they did change some important quotes around and they left out Kaitlyn aka my favorite because we have the same name. I think the movie was not casted correctly, BUT they all played their roles very well. The movie made me laugh, cry, and scream just like the book. I'm very surprised how the movie turned out and I'm very happy with the outcome. AND THE SOUNDTRACK IS AMAZING! Many of my favorite artists are on the soundtrack. I would give the movie and soundtrack 5 out of 5 stars! (That was not ment to be a pun)
-The Whole Jar

Farewell TMI!

Here is our City of Heavenly Fire SPOILER FREE review! We've combined our review into one post.  Here it is:

Catherine went to Target at 8am before school started to get us 2 copies of CoHF.  She gave it to me before 1st period and I finished 36 hours later at 9:10pm on Wednesday the 28th.  After 39 tissues, a broken bed, scissors thrown across the room along with 2 pillows and much screaming, I finished the book.  I cried more out of happiness than out of sadness.  When I finished the book, I was happy.  It was not a bitter sweet ending but a happy ending.  Characters from The Infernal Devices are in the book and that made me even happier.  Most of my favorite characters made it out alive in the epilogue.  This book is one of my favorites of all time, and my favorite in the series by far.  I am sad to say goodbye to this series, but am happy to welcome a new one, The Dark Artifices.  There wasn't a moment in this book in which I disliked it.  It is action packed, intense, full of love and passion, of course there's humor, and sacrifice.  This is a wonderful way to end a series, I wouldn't change a thing about it.  Thank you Cassandra Clare and goodbye TMI.  We won't be saying goodbye to these characters for long though, I'm almost positive a few of them will be in TDA.  This series will always be close to my heart. 

~Kate   

I more recently finished, it was a large book and I didn't want to miss any details.  I didn't cry, I didn't even feel emotion, I was just tired.  I absolutely loved the ending and cannot wait for The Dark Artifices.  Overall this was my favorite book in the series! (Followed by City of Glass of course!)

-Catherine

Have a nice day and, keep reading!

-The Whole Jar

Top 3 Most Anticipated June Book Releases.

Here are my most anticipated book releases of June 2014.

1. The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings (June 10, 2014)

2. The Merciless by Danielle Vega (June 12, 2014)

3. The Glass Sentence by S.E. Grove (June 12, 2014)

Thanks for reading.
Have a nice day and, happy reading!
-Catherine

May Favourites.

First off, this is Catherine.  I put a "u" in favourite and colour.  Hey, it makes it easy to tell the difference between us.  So I'm running dry on ideas because I'm not ready to put my depression experiences on the internet and because I haven't been reading much!  So I stole Kate's idea (with her permission of course) and I'm here with a May Favourites!

1. iPhones/iPads

• I have had an iPad for almost 3 years and an iPhone for longer than that, although I still love it.

2. Internet Access

• Although my school is dumb and blocks certain applications and/or websites on the wifi, I still love the internet!

3. The One by Kiera Cass

• I did a review on this book (spoiler free) so you can read it here.

4. Skittles

• I just recently rediscovered my love for skittles and boy oh boy am I glad.

5. Yoga Pants

• aka life

6. Nike Running Shorts

• aka summer life

That's basically it, it takes a lot to become my favourite because I am a very picky person. Bye!

-Catherine