Yay for the Weekend!

Well, I am SO glad its the weekend!!!

This past week of school has been stressful, stressful and stressful!!!

I seem to be using exclamation points rather a lot today...

I'm dropping my Spanish course at the semester.
Which in itself is a long story in itself...
I guess a good summary is that the course was written by morons.
And that, that is the truth...sadly...

I'm immensely enjoying my forensic science course.
In fact, its my favorite subject...as well as my best.

Web design is going well, though I think the hardest part is definitely having some inspiration to be able to make the page, compared to that all the HTML is a breeze!

But on to something a little less tiresome.

I've started reading some new books.

I began Misguided Angel the newest installment in the Blue Bloods series by Melissa De La Cruz the other night. I'm hoping that this book will live up to the caliber of the previous novels, but I am a bit of a skeptic as I have heard from quite a few different people that nothing happens. I guess I'll see. (I would like to point out, for the record, for those of you that care, that no this is not a Christian book. In fact it is a vampire series. You can read more on why I actually have enjoyed them and a bit about what they're about, here on C&G.)

Due to the popular demand and rave reviews for The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, as well as my love for the Gregor the Overlander series, I've gotten The Hunger Games on audio book from my library to put on my iPod (I've been listening to audiobooks more than reading lately due to school).

I finished reading Torment by Lauren Kate a week ago now, and while it wasn't quite as good as its predecessor Fallen (my review can be found on GoodReads just click the book cover above) it was still an awesome book and I'm definitely looking forward to the third installment, Passion to be released next summer!

I've heard that the movie adaptation of The City of Bones is in the works.

Now, I absolutely enjoyed reading The City of Bones...for the first three fourths of the book...and then came the little plot twist that really just messed up the whole thing...the author definitely could've left it out...so, while it was very well written and a mostly enjoyable read, I'm not going to suggest it for most, especially more conservative readers.

Now, I have a quick reading-related question for all of you readers of blogs and books alike out there.
Has anyone read Incerceron?

I'm welcome to book suggestions, comments and reviews alike!

P.S. I finished up the new blog design and figured it all out, and am wondering what all of you are thinking of the new format, so head on over to the top of the sidebar and vote on the poll (or you can comment ;).

Book Rant Warning!

hmmnnn...well, well, well...what to blog about?

I guess everything's going good for me here.
School is well...school...normally homeschool is pretty laid back but with my online classes I really have to step up my game! haha So that can be rather stressful...especially when ones Spanish course was obviously written but well...idiots to tell you the truth.
Its a long story I'd rather not go into...but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be dropping this course and potentially trying out a different one on a trial basis for a week or so to make sure that I won't be behind or anything.

Part of the problem really is the fact that this Spanish course is SO, SO basic, and so dumbed down that it confuses me...because the whole dumbed down and more basic than basic is pretty much the reason I left public school...when its so dumbed down that its confusing me then there is obviously something wrong.

Working on my midterm for my Web Design course...wish I could get some inspiration to make it a bit easier!

In more exciting news, I'm very much excited about going to a concert on Monday!
Yes, it is a school night and whatnot, but its just too good to pass up! Not to mention I'll be going with one of my bestest friends as well as the rest of my YoungLife group. It shall be epic and lots of fun. So, very much looking forward to that.

For anyone who wonders, I have yet to finish Iron King by Julie Kagawa. 
Sadly, I just don't seem to have much time for reading what with school and everything. Not to mention the fact that nothing is really sparking my reading appetite.
I think part of the problem is that there just isn't really much good reading young adult genre right now. Everything seems to be vampire, werewolf or zombie related and that's just not exactly my slice of pie.
However, I will admit that there are a few that are worth mention that I have enjoyed.

If you're totally and completely opposed to "magic", zombies, werewolves, vamps and the like, feel free to skip the next paragraph as you see fit.

Worthy of honorable mention for a vampire book that I read and enjoyed is Melissa De La Cruz's Blue Bloods series.

Though it has its questionable content (everything does nowadays...), I enjoyed the series because the author has a great writing style, as well as a fantastic knack for weaving various myths, legends and lore, together to create an intriguing and original story...though definitely not Biblically accurate (in her series the "vampires" were the former angels who fell with Lucifer) it is just meant to be fiction.

As far as the whole "werewolves" thing goes, there's really only one book in my opinion that stepped above and beyond for me. Author Maggie Stiefvater took the whole "werewolf" thing and created a whole new story and spin on it in her book Shiver.

You see, in this story its not a silver bullet, full-moon werewolf, they change when they're cold and in the sequel Linger (SPOILER ALERT!!!!!) she puts a science spin on it. It was totally original and I loved it. For my full review of Shiver you can head on over and read it HERE at Randomly Reading.

And so we've come to "zombies".
The whole dead thing has never been anything I like to go near...ick.
And honestly, I never thought I'd see the day where I'd even read something with zombies in it...never ever.
But! I proved myself wrong when I was enticed by what looked to be a potentially good read. Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon.
Though filled with tons of action and undead butt whoopin...there is a little too much content for my taste, but it was a rather great story.

The biggest thing with all three of those, is the originality.
Everything even scarcely related to "vampires" or "werewolves" as of late is pretty much completely unoriginal.
Sorry to anyone who's big into Twilight, but the books are overrated, Stephenie Meyer's writing is really not that good (though she does get better as the books progress...I will give her that), and its really not all that original!

Basically, its all pretty much same-ol', same-ol' which well...GETS old, which is why the biggest judge for me, is how original the author was.
For more of my feelings on books as well as whats-hot and whats-not in YA reading, make sure to head on over and check out Randomly Reading!

Hopefully I didn't bore you all to death...or insult anyone too badly...haha
Comment, I would love to know what you think!

Blessings to you all!