At long last

After a long week of lots of work, I have a little break to my self, though I have work this afternoon so it's not too long. Last night went out for a friends birthday - although out is an exaggeration as we stayed at hers and drank out on the balcony - was lovely fun :) I gave her the nail polish I mentioned in the last post!
 
I haven't yet uploaded My Summer Bucket List, but I have started to complete it. So far I have seen a pieec of the theatre already this summer. I saw Love Never Dies - the sequel to Phantom of the Opera. It was FANTASTIC! As a theatre student, I love the 'Wow' factor and this production had it in millions. The lights and the set design were jaw dropping. I could have stared at them all day!

The other thing I have completed on my list is to read a book. The first book of the Summer was: What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen. She is one of my favourite YA (young adult) authors and this book did not disappoint. Wasn't a new favourite - I own all of them but I would place in my top few (it would probably be about 6). As a kid who went to 6 different schools and grew up in 4 different countries, I loved the idea of how she reinvented herself each time. I admit, I was still pretty much the same person in each place. But who ever you are with does shape your personality and because I am obsessed with names, I like how each name she embodied carried a different personality. A name is so much more than just that. It becomes part of your personality and carries its own connotations. Naming a child is perhaps the biggest responsibility that new parents are given, other than looking after a newborn infant :P Another thing I love about her books is how characters cross over. In the new book, there were characters from Along for the Ride, Truth About Forever and Keeping the Moon.

I also adore these new covers that are being released in Australia. But they did look better when the background was black so I hope they revert them! I love the little doodles and the text interspersed within them. It is definitely extremely unique. As you will see below, I love interesting covers!

If you are interested her books, my favourites are as follows:

1. This Lullaby

I think this one will always be my favourite. It was the first book I read by Sarah and it was just like falling in love reading this book. I've read it several times since then, but not in awhile - but this post is making me want to pick it up again! For me, the characters were so realistic. Remy, her family and Dexter all came to life for me. I also ADORE the cover of this image. I know you aren't supposed to judge a book by its cover, but as a lover of cool, original and interesting design, this one never fails to catch my attention.

2. Lock and Key

The reason why I loved this one because it was so different to her others. It also fueled my obsession with key necklaces.

3. Truth about Forever

 

This was, I think, the second book I read by Sarah, right after This Lullaby and it was this one that made want/need to own all of her books! This is because This Lullaby could have been fluke but this one cemented, to me at least, that here was a great female writer that understands teenage girls. I started reading these books when I was about 16 - so about same age as a lot of the narrators and for the first time I felt like there were fully realised characters that had characteristics similar to me. My only gripe with all these books that it seems that all the girls need a guy to help them out and as I was very a non-boy-crazy girl in High School, that annoyed me. What Happened to Goodbye actually handled this fairly well, maybe better than others. But this is a little review of The Truth About Forever :P But what Sarah does is that she writes such endearing guys that I can't help but fall in love with them and therefore I believe in her stories. And this is what happened in this book :) The tagline on all her books now is - Read her once and fall in love - I definitely did this!

4. Along for the Ride

I loved the symbolism in this book and about returning to childhood, or rather the lack of having one. I read this book around when I was about to turn 20 and I loved the ideas in it about this. Also, I kinda like bikes!

5. Keeping the Moon

This is an older classic one of Sarah's and I like it because once again her characters are so realistic! I haven't read this one in awhile so I don't remember specifics, but I do remember the detail and how fully realised her heroines are.

I better go get ready for work now! Hope you enjoyed the post!