The Alliance

 I recently sat down with my handy dandy notebook that I like to write in when... well I like to write in it for anything and everything. I wrote down a list of different books that I could review for this blog. I tried to have a variety of different genres (luckily I am unopposed to any of the genres that I have yet encountered).
I have decided to write this first book review on one of my all time favorite books. This particular book is not very well known and is kind of old:

I first read this book when I was in 6th grade (so clearly it is not a hard read) and I fell in love with it at once. We read it for school, it was one of those books where you had to write summaries on; the books that make you hate reading normally. This book however, has the opposite effect, an impressive feat. 

The book starts out in the future; the world has ended and civilization is barely holding on. One group was prepared for the end and they are able to continue a small community through their hard work and perseverance. However, they soon discover that more people have survived the calamity that destroyed so many than they originally thought and they are taken to a community that appears perfect. In this Utopian community, crime rates are basically non-existent and despite the occasional disturbance, everything runs perfect and smoothly. This is where the real story begins: full of intrigue, action, fighting, sacrifice, and love. This book is packed with relate-able issues, themes, and messages. 

I have a hard time committing to a set method of rating or even a set rate that something (books, movies, etc) deserves. I tend to change my mind after time has passed. However, presently I will go with the popular 5 Star method:

               

Perhaps I am biased about this book, because I have loved it ever since I was twelve years old, but I would give The Alliance by Gerald N. Lund a rating of 4 out of five stars.

                                      

This book keeps you on the edge of your seat, from the first sentence to the very last word. Characters are well developed and cause one to actually care about them and their well being. This is a thought provoking book and stays with you years after you first read it. This is what makes a book a "good book" in my opinion. Lund is able to create characters that you care about, themes that speak to you, a book that leaves you entertained, and makes you so disappointed that it's over that you have to reread it over and over again.

I truly enjoyed this book when I first read it, and years later, I am still entertained by the mere thought of it. I hope you take my advice to read it because it truly is one of my favorites.

Also, if you have any feedback, comments, ideas for me, books that I should review, or anything else you can possibly think of hit me up!

Book Blog

As of late I have been thinking of my blog. Just thinking about it and not doing anything about this particular blog. But thinking is a step up to what I was doing previously -- which was nothing.
What I was thinking was that I missed blogging. I really did. I missed writing, writing about nothing or anything and figuring out my life. That's what writing can be for me. Because this summer I am not taking any English classes, I haven't really sat down and written anything (besides letters) in such a long time. I was missing it. So, I knew that I wanted to start up writing on my blog again, but truth be told, my life is exceptionally boring. I could tell you all about the friends that I have that are getting married, going on missions, moving away, and having babies. As for what I was doing, I could tell you all about how difficult anatomy is and all about the human body. A blog about my life would put those reading it to sleep, and I would probably die of boredom just from writing the posts. I figured I had a few options for this blog of mine and I mulled these options over in my head for some time, until I came to a conclusion.
 My first thought was to make my life more exciting (which I still plan on doing), but at the moment I need to focus on school and not on thrill-seeking. Plus all my friends are leaving; thrilling adventures aren't very fun when you are all by your lonesome. The amount of friends that I have left is a grand total or 2 (that may be a slight exaggeration). Also thrill-seeking gets expensive and I am a cheap-o.
Another option was to change my blog into the entertaining, though highly unoriginal fashion blog. Problem: I am not super duper into fashion. I like my fashion and I think my skills of matching a top to a bottom are sure to be praised (bahah), but clothes and style is not really a passion of mine, and I want to write about something that entertains me more than the mere basics that I have hanging in my closet.
Finally, a truly wonderful idea came to me: A book blog. I love books. Love them so much. I am always looking for new books to read, and when I come across a good book, I just eat it up. It's also a dream of mine to become a movie critic. Wouldn't it be a dream to just watch a movie and then write what you think about it in a clever and original way? So, I have decided to make that dream of mine become a reality, but instead of a movie critic, I will become a book critic on this own little blog of mine.
Finding a good book to read is really a problem. They aren't like movies where they are ranked in stars or thumbs up. There aren't commercials that make a book look exciting or stupid. Really, the only way to find a good book to read is by recommendation. That is what my blog is going to do. Recommend books to the public. I haven't decided if I am going to post on just the books I like, or post on all the books that I read for this shin dig... That still needs to be pondered in my brain.
If anyone has any recommendations, ideas, feedback, anything like that, feel free to leave a comment.
My first book review will hopefully appear in the next few days, depending on how busy I am.

Cellular Devices: What a blessing.

Life is so much simpler with cell phones. They take out all of the complications of life that people had to cope with before.
For example: Romeo and Juliet. Romeo could have just popped out a text to Juliet that said "Yo, I be fake dying. Just to give you a heads up." And poof that story would no longer even be a story.
Whenever someone went missing, people had to go out and actually search for them. Manually. How hard. Man. We have it so easy. All we have to do is send someone a text or call 'em up and just say "hey were did you disappear too?" Problem solved.Only when they don't answer is when there is a problem.
For reals. Cell phones make life so much easier and less stressful. I am grateful for this invention.

Harry Potter

My love for Harry Potter is certainly unhealthy. Like ridiculously so. Today I realized that if ever I were to get a tattoo (not that I am or anything) but it would absolutely be Harry Potter related. That is not even an exaggeration. My tattoo would be Harry Potter related. No doubt.

Da BoBo

Today I decided to blog about one of my little nieces. Now, I love all of my nieces and nephews a whole whole lot and each and every one of them has a special place in my heart. But today I am blogging about the sweet Brenly Belle. Or as she is more commonly known: BoBo, or my personal favorite da BoBo. 

When her mom had her new little (not little anymore, he looks like he is a baby that ate another baby. That kid is huge) baby brother, she stayed over at my house and she has never loved me so much as she did in that weekend. Plus I took her to the hospital to meet her new little bro, just me and her, and I am pretty sure that people thought she was my baby. Secretly I loved it. She is not, just in case anyone was wondering. Anywhoo, the whole weekend she was staying at my house, she would follow me around the house saying my name and if I went in the other room, say, the potty room or my bedroom, she would stand outside the door calling my name and if I didn't come out fast enough, she would start crying. Needless to say I loved it.

 It was hilarious. 

Please excuse my zitty face, but aren't we presh? (Mostly I just wanted to blog about this BoBo because we have this picture together from when we went to California and it is delightful.)

Splendidly Delightful

When my grandpa was bishop, he called himself as a nursery teacher the week that he got released as the bishop. He didn't tell anyone. He just did it. And then the High Council man got up immediately after and released my grandpa from being a nursery teacher and bishop and called him to be a member of the High Council. 

My Grandpa didn't just think about doing this, he actually had the nerve to get up in church and call himself to a really fun calling, which I think is almost inspiring. It makes me want to go through and actually do the funny things that I think of.

What an inspiring man. If only I had been there. It is an awesome story. 

Mostly my Grandpa was just splendid.

The Most Magical Place on Earth

This weekend I went to Disneyland! So much fun!

It was decorated all Christmas-y and cute. This is everyone that went.

Jon, Sheridan, Mark, Vanita, Nathan, Tiff, Rachel, Emily, Chantry, and Meagan

Chantry and I have the same last name, plus we are not even related (that we know of). We are cool.

It was quite cold so we made a line of cuddly-coldness

All the precious girls together. We are cuties.