MOAR Fantastic Books!

First and foremost, BREAK by Hannah Moskowitz is officially out! I wrote a quick review of it on Amazon:

Jonah is on a mission to break all his bones. There, you've got the plot of the book.

Not so fast. Because a person's life isn't isolated. Jonah spends most of his time (when he's not intentionally falling off skateboards) trying to save his younger brother from dying from food allergies. His best friend is egging him on to keep breaking bones, while his brother is having reactions all over the place and begging him to stop. His parents are clueless and trying to take care of a baby who won't stop crying.

Everything going on in Jonah's life pushes him to keep going. The reason for his actions make sense, in a way. When you're reading this book, you ARE Jonah. You are completely in his head, and while the leaps in logic seem crazy to the outside world, when you're Jonah, it all ties together. And as a reader, I was dragged into his thoughts and emotions.

Moskowitz has written a fantastic debut novel. Jonah's voice stays present through the whole book and doesn't lose much steam in the middle, the way many first-person novels do. I would recommend this book to anyone (as long aren't a pansy when it comes to blood and pain.)

Sound intriguing? Go buy it!

Also, I'm a little slow and just read HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins. WOW. I devoured this book. It's one of the best books I've read in a long time, and gave me that warm fuzzy post-amazing-book feeling. I ordered CATCHING FIRE, the next book in the series from Amazon, but it won't be here until I'm already gone! Alas.

I also just read GODLESS by Pete Hautman. I wasn't as impressed by it, but a lot of that might be because I read it so close to the awesomeness of the first two books. I thought it was still a pretty decent book, but I wasn't blown away by it.

Next up? Not sure. THE THIEF LORD, maybe.

Crack of the Week

In case you haven't picked up on this particular quirk (i.e. neurosis) in my personality, there's something you should know.

I have a bit of an addictive personality. Which is pretty awesome when I get addicted to something productive like, I don't know, PRACTICING, but is less exciting when it's something like Monopoly.

Currently, I'm back on an anime kick. (Note: Windows does not believe "anime" is a word. Screw 'em.) So I've watched absurd amounts of Fullmetal Alchemist in the past few days. (Windows doesn't believe in "Fullmetal," either. WHY DO YOU HATE JAPAN, BILL GATES?)

So if I've been a terrible/distracted/annoying friend over the past few days, that's probably why.

You know, my blog is still called "Music Major Madness." While the madness still almost certainly applies, I'm not a music major anymore. I don't write about writing much, so it would be stupid to name the blog for that. Hm...name change is probably on the horizon.

(Note: Dani sent me a copy of FRAGILE ETERNITY, and she totally rocks my socks for that. Even if the end did make me a little aggravated. Cer la vie.)

Birmingham and Books!

I'm currently in Day 2 of the Great Birmingham Adventure (so far, no need for law enforcement...)

So far, hanging out with dad has been fantastic as usual. Since he still has to do silly things like "get a paycheck" and "go to work," I've had most of my days free. So, because I am lame, I have spent approximately 12 of the past 48 hours in bookstores and Starbuckses. (Starbucki?)

I've written a bit, but mostly I've read a couple great books. The first was AUDREY, WAIT! This book was a riot. It's basically about a girl whose ex-boyfriend writes and angry song about their breakup, which turns out to be amazing. The band becomes huge, and Audrey's life gets a little crazy.

The voicing reminds me a lot of Suzanne Young (who, to date, is the only author to actually make me snort Pepsi up my nose while reading.) The beginning was awesome, and while the voicing got a little flat towards the middle/end, it came back at the very end. It was great fun, and also made me decide that I need to go to more live shows.

The book I read today was IF I STAY, which was on the other end of the YA spectrum. This is the story of a girl's decision to keep on living or go on to die after her parents and younger brother die in a car accident and she is suspended between life and death in the ICU.

It's weird--I didn't think the book was that good, but it still made me cry at three separate times. (Also, if you're going to have your main character be a Julliard-bound classical cellist, you should probably not misspell Haydn. Just a thought.) But I liked several aspects of this book--Mia's parents were fantastic, and I ended up really wanting to know where the story was going.

Now I'm out of book again, so I'll have to work on that over the next few days. But more importantly, we're going RAFTING!!!

Happy Birthday...um...maybe not.

Derek and I broke up yesterday. So that was pretty much suck, especially since it was my birthday. But now we're very amicable, and talking more than we actually were last week. Which makes me wonder what the hell happened anyway.

HannaH has a theory that he was trying to be enough of a jerk to where I would break up with him. I think this is highly possible, whether he's aware of it or not. Still, ending things when everything is so friendly makes me feel weird. I mean, I'm not really upset, but at the same time, it's a change and there should be some emotion attached, even if I'm not sure what it should be yet.

Earlier today I was elated--I felt fantastic and free and absolutely in love with the world. That's fading now, though. I'm not exactly upset, but I'm not thrilled, either. Maybe it's just because it's dark. I guess it's another process--sorting out how our relationship works and how I should feel about it. We'll see.

In other news, I got myself Reviving Ophelia for my birthday. I'm about halfway through it and it's absolutely amazing. I'll post a little more on it after I finish, but I just wanted to remind the world how lame I am--I got myself a psychological social commentary for my birthday. Alas.

When Brothers Scan Bookshelves

Chris happened to be around visiting earlier this week, which was nice. However, while he was there, he was looking at my bookshelf.

"You read Vonnegut?"

"Um...yeah..."

"Wow, I wouldn't have figured. Steinbeck and 1984, too! Have you actually read these?"

"You sound so surprised."

"I thought you just read fantasy. I didn't realize you read actual literature."

This is the part where Amanda started twitching uncontrollably. Fantasy is not irrelevant. It can tell us every bit as much about human relationships and conditions as the grittiest realistic fiction there is. It creates new connections in our minds as we learn the rules and standards in each new world, learning a language to connect with it. It gives us another way to view the world and another opportunity to understand it.

In other news, it's dumping snow, and school has been canceled for tomorrow. This would be cool, if we didn't have a concert Tuesday after missing class Friday.

Alas.

Feminism v. Twilight

Let me preface this by saying that I really enjoyed reading Twilight. It’s fantastic mind candy. I gobbled it up in like three days. Recently, I read an interesting article that brought up some points I think are worth thinking about. Even though I liked it, there’s some parts of it that you have to wonder about.

Point 1: Edward can seriously be a jerk.

A lot of girls are completely in love with Edward, but a real-life guy who told you you couldn’t go visit your best friend would not be OK. Furthermore, who wants to be told what kind of car they’re going to drive? Yeah, Edward seems oh-so-sweet and attentive to Bella’s needs, but there’s serious problems with the way he commands her. Which leads us up to point number two…

Point 2: Edward controls the sex.

The problem here isn’t their abstinence, by any means, it’s that every decision is Edward’s. When Bella will become a vampire, when they’ll make love…these are decisions that are exceedingly pivotal in Bella’s life, but somehow her decisions are less important than his. We don’t need another example of sex being used for control, from either gender. But here sex and the Big Fat Scary Sex Metaphor (that’s Bella being bitten, for those unsure,) are both used by Edward to create “conditions” for Bella to meet.

Point 3: Edward and Bella have a profoundly unhealthy relationship.

No duh, you’re probably thinking. But the thing about it is, so many teenage girls are reading this and are really jumping on this idea of what love looks like. I think that’s a pretty serious problem. Love isn’t when you completely lose your identity for someone. I’ve been in love. Twice. At no point in those 4+ years would I call myself “nothing” without them. When Edward leaves, Bella is completely non-functioning for months, risking death just to hear the hallucination of his voice.

None of this is probably new thinking to many people, but here’s the thing. I (and several of my friends) read the series up in a couple days. We could get swept up in it and enjoy it, but it didn’t stop us from being the hardcore awesome feminists that we are. (Hooray.) But is it affecting the way teenage girls see themselves and their role in relationships?

I know not many people read this, but to the few that do, I’d really like to hear your opinion. Is it a problem for teenage girls to get into a novel with such a weak female protagonist whose whole life is controlled, or should we just be glad they’re reading at all? Do you think girls’ infatuation towards Edward makes them more likely to gravitate towards dominating, possibly abusive boys? Or do you think what I’m saying is way off base?

I should be practicing...

As usual.

I just glanced at the last thing I posted, and it was hellaciously long. I DID try to condense the summer into one post...I think I failed a bit there.

BUT! I am now the problem child in the trumpet section. Mwuahaha...I now have no idea why I was EVER a section leader. Seriously, it's WAY more fun to just cut up in the back and not be responsible for anything. I just know my part and don't worry about anything else. Pretty awesome.

Auditions are in a couple days--I'm having a hard time caring. I guess I care abstractly, but it's hard to really care that much when you don't like ANY of the pieces they're playing. So what happens, happens.

Being back in Boone is really nice--coffee shops and cool weather, great friends and practice rooms. Hopefully I won't get sick of it too soon. It is my last semester, after all.

Currently reading: Smack, Melvin Burgess.

Read over the summer:
Twilight Saga
Reading Lolita in Teheran
What Was Lost
Four Spirits

I'll update when I can recall the rest.

A decent assignment, for once

So, for a change, we are reading an excellent and relevant book in Foundations of American Education, Walking on Water by Derek Jensen. It's absolutely amazing, and I recommend it to anyone who is going to/is teaching.

Now, in addition to that (it's almost too good to be true!) we have a wonderful assignment for the class--to use any medium we wish to answer--what is the most important question we have to answer for ourselves?

Obviously, I'm writing. Here's the first few paragraphs:

Will you walk the labyrinth?

I freeze. It's a dingy billboard, posted on the wall of the subway station. I haven't walked a labyrinth in years--I've long since given up following winding paths, searching for feelings that aren't there. My mother cried, my father sighed, but in the end, it does nothing but wear down your shoes.

The tram in front of the sign pulls way, revealing the bottom. It's a movie add, some new torture-porn flick. I turn quickly, boarding the train back to my apartment.

My home--Queens Shithole. In some ways, I suppose it's fitting--my building is so similar to my cases' homes--but it's pretty bad when you consider I left behind a beautiful Georgia town and home for this. Now, the most glamorous thing I see is the subway.