Favorite Settings

I'm going to try and talk about writing more on here.  It's something I enjoy a lot, and I love talking about it.  It's just that I'm kind of hesitant to bring it up a lot of the time because I'm scared people will criticize my writing and tell me it's horrible.  Constructive criticism is always a good thing, but I'm scared that people will completely hate it.

Anyway, the first thing I want to talk about is setting and/or universes in writing.  More specifically, what type of settings I like to write stories in.

So far, all of the stories I've written have been set in present day, present day but with mythical creatures, the Harry Potter universe, and the Avatar (of the bending variety) universe.  I love writing in all of these, but in the future I hope to write more fantasy (in my own universe of course) and historical fiction.  I'd love to write a book in colonial America or on the frontier sometime in the 1800's.  I have plans for stories that take place in all of these settings.

So far, I think the story that I had the most fun with the setting was this short story I wrote in eighth grade.  Unfortunately, I lost the story a long time ago, but the idea's never left my head.  I have a lot of plans to go back and turn the idea into a whole novel.  I've already changed a lot in my head, but the basic idea has stayed pretty much the same.  It was my first time creating a universe of my own.  It was set in present day America, but the main character was a witch and there were many other mythical creatures.  I don't want to say much more because I do plan to go back to that someday.  I already have a lot of the rules and stuff in that world worked out.  It was just written as a short story for class, but I don't think any story I've ever written has had as much backstory as I have for this idea.  I love coming up with new ideas about that universe.

I think it's cool that you can write a story that takes place in any time period or universe you want it too.  I plan to write stories in many, many different settings.  It's always fun to try new things.

Are any of you guys writers?  What are your favorite settings for your stories?  If you're just a reader, what's your favorite settings for books?

Book Review: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

ISBN:  0395775507

Published:  January 26th, 2008 (first published 1884)

Publisher:  Houghton Miffllin Company

Read from April 21st to May 10th, 2011

Synopsis from Goodreads:

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN This is Twain's masterwork written at the height of his power. Twain himself refers to it as "a book of mine where a sound heart & a deformed conscience come into collision & conscience suffers defeat."

The book contains belly-laughing humor intertwined with themes of profound moral significance. Huck, escaping from the confines of his existence on the shore, has found life to be "free and easy living on a raft" with Jim, a black man fleeing from slavery. When faced with the crucial decision to turn over Jim to his rightful owner, he studies the consequences, then says to himself, "All right, then, I'll go to hell."

Review:

I read this book for school and completely forgot to write a review for it.  I have mixed feelings about this book.  Some parts of it I really loved, and other parts I found really boring.

We talked a lot about the symbolism in class, and I loved that part of the story.  After reading the story, I was surprised at how much I liked the characters.  It took a little bit to get used to some parts of it.  For instance, it was hard for me to understand Jim first, but I got used to it after a bit.

I think this is an American classic that everyone needs to read.  Most teenagers today would probably find it boring, but I think they would benefit from reading it.

Book Review: Space Exploration for Dummies by Cynthia Phillips and Shana Priwer

ISBN:  0470445734

Published:  June 2nd, 2009 (first published May 4th, 2009)

Publisher:  For Dummies

Read from April 26th to May 25th, 2011

Summary from Goodreads:

Your comprehensive guide to remarkable achievements in space

Do you long to explore the universe? This plain-English, fully illustrated guide explains the great discoveries and advancements in space exploration throughout history, from early astronomers to the International Space Station. You'll learn about the first satellites, rockets, and people in space; explore space programs around the world; and ponder the controversial question: Why continue to explore space?

Take a quick tour of astronomy — get to know the solar system and our place in the galaxy, take a crash course in rocket science, and live a day in the life of an astronaut

Run the Great Space Race — trace the growth of the Space Age from Sputnik to the Apollo moon landings and meet the robots that explored the cosmos

Watch as space exploration matures — from the birth of the Space Shuttle to the creation of the Mir Space Station to successes and failures in Mars exploration, see how space programs reached new levels

Journey among the planets — check out the discoveries made during historic voyages to the inner and outer reaches of the solar system

Understand current exploration — review the telescopes in space, take a tour of the International Space Station, and see the latest sights on Mars

Look into the future — learn about upcoming space missions and increased access to space travel

Open the book and find:

Descriptions of space milestones and future missions

An easy-to-follow chronological structure

Color and black-and-white photos

The nitty-gritty details of becoming an astronaut

A grand tour of the solar system through space missions

Explanations of tragedies and narrow escapes

Facts on the creation of space stations by NASA and the USSR

Ten places to look for life beyond Earth

Review:

This is an excellent book who wants to learn more about the history and future of space exloration.  There's also a section that talks about different aspects of astronomy for those who want to know more about that type of thing.  The talk about space exloration goes in chronological order for the most part.  You can follow space exloration from the beginnings, the space race, after the space race, current space exloration, and what's planned for the future.

If you want to know more about space, especially space exloration, I definitely recommend reading this book.

Teaser Tuesdays - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading.  Here's what you do:

•Grab your current read

•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I'm trying to get a ton of books read right now, but I decided to share a teaser from one of the summer reading books I'm reading for school.  Brave New World really creeps me out, but I'm finding it really interesting, even if the future it's set in is a little (or a lot) scary.  Here it is:

"Outside, in the garden, it was playtime.  Naked in the warm June sunshine, six or seven hundred little boys and girls were running with shrill yells over the lawns, or playing ball games, or squatting silently in twos and threes among the flowering shrubs." - Page 43 of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Book Review: What Did I Do Wrong by Liz Pryor

ISBN:  0743286324
Release date:  March 25th, 2009
Publisher:  Free Press
Read from May 16th to 24th, 2011
Synopsis from Goodreads:

It happens without warning, and it hits you with devastating force. Your closest girlfriend, the Ethel to your Lucy, the Thelma to your Louise, cuts you off completely. No more late-night phone calls, no more afternoon e-mails, no more catch-up lunches and dinners. She has decided for whatever reason to move on with her life and has left you to figure it out on your own. The experience can be as painful and confusing as a sudden breakup with a significant other, and you replay scenes from the friendship and wonder what you did wrong.


Until now, women had to endure the heartache of losing a friend all alone, without the social support and understanding that accompanies, say, a romantic split-up -- and to make matters worse, they don't even have their best friend's shoulder to cry on. But What Did I Do Wrong? gives you that sympathetic shoulder and a resource -- and some answers -- that you can rely on. After author Liz Pryor had gone through a number of these breakups herself, she set out to discover why they were happening, how to help herself -- and others -- get through them...and how to prevent them from happening again.

Through personal interviews and her popular website, www.lizpryor.com, Pryor collected hundreds of stories of friendships with which you will identify. Now she draws on those stories to explore the dynamics of friendship breakups in a candid, intimate way, revealing the patterns, the warning signs, and some ways to put a friendship right or help it change to meet your or your friend's changing life. She also explains how to end a friendship -- if you find that you need to do so -- in ways that honor both parties' feelings and your history together.

Like the best kind of girlfriend -- one who really will stay friends forever -- Pryor blends plain, old-fashioned, feminine good sense and good humor with genuine empathy for the thousands of women who live with the confusion that lingers after an ended friendship -- for women of all ages, races, and backgrounds. What Did I Do Wrong? validates your feelings and inspires you to be more forthright and compassionate with new and old friends. It might even lead you to reconnect with a lost one. In the end, you will be moved and uplifted by the many stories of strong friendships, broken friendships, and renewed friendships that make this book a treasure of women's wisdom and experiences.

Review:

I thought this book was very relatable.  Everyone has lost a friend at sometime or other and knows how it feels.  This book really talks about interesting aspects of ending a friendship, and it has many stories.  I'm sure everyone's had at least something similar to one of the stories happen to them before.  I went through some things with two of my closest friends about three years ago, and I'll admit that I'm still not quite over it.  This book really helped me look at that in a new way.

It's not a very long read, and it's very relatable.  I recommend this book to any female that's ever lost a friend, whether they ended it or the other person did.