New laptop!

I bought a new computer and I love it. My old Macbook is about five years old and is way too slow, has far too little memory/storage space, and runs very hot and loud (not to mention, it's dirty, the part I rest my wrists on is splitting into pieces, and the keyboard's full of crumbs). My new Macbook Pro has a backlit keyboard, a fancy glass screen, cool new features, and tons of hard drive space (and it's cooler and lighter, even). I'm really happy with it. The only hassle has been with transferring all my old stuff onto the new laptop (and that's just because of me. I keep getting distracted). My iPhoto library has been transferred, but now I feel like I need to go through it and correct the tagged Faces, delete/fix blurry pics, etc. I just installed Mozilla Firefox and transferred all my Firefox bookmarks (no small feat; I really need to go through all my bookmark folders and delete what I don't need), as well as my iTunes library (I think. I'm pretty much relying on my Computer Engineering major brother to make sure I'm doing everything right). Oh, I also figured out how to make my screensaver display an RSS feed of my LibraryThing books; in trying to find the instructions, I discovered how to put a LT widget on this blog (in the sidebar thingie. Now you can see what books I have, and it links to my LT profile so you can stalk friend me). I need to make sure my iTunes library is complete and install Office for Mac 2011, set my Desktop to rights, and eventually I want to start using the Apple money I got due to their Back to School promotion (I can use it to buy music, iBooks, and apps. So excite). My little brother bought a new laptop at the same time, and it's so cute to see him all excited about his own brand new computer since this is his first one. He's bought some bright green accessories for it. I can't believe he's going away to college! Sniff.

Book Review: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Ahhh this book was SO GOOD. I liked it so much it's a new favorite. It includes a lot of my favorite things to read about: secretly sneaking around inside of city walls and buildings, mysteries that might change people's destinies, people who are geniuses at something awesome (in this case, putting together mechanical things), lock-picking (I really want to learn how to do that), dreams, gorgeous black and white illustrations, etc. Oh, it also includes an old-fashioned key with a heart, which is featured prominently on a teaser poster for the movie (I really wish they had kept the original title because it's way more awesome and old-fashioned-sounding and mysterious. "HUGO" does not inspire me to go see a movie. Plus, the font they used is too childish and whimsical). I hope they sell necklaces with the key as a pendant for movie merchandise because I rilly rilly want one.
Anyway, Hugo is a mechanically talented boy with many secrets. What happens when he runs into an old man with similar mechanical talent and just as many secrets? Literary dynamite, that's what. Also, the man's goddaughter Louise is awesome and has just as many skills (the lock-picking with a bobby pin among them) and she's a bookworm so I love her. The story is told with tons of gorgeous black and white pencil drawings as well as photographs from old movies. TIOHC won the Caldecott Award that year, which caused an uproar since that award is for picture books and this book is a novel. However, the pictures are just as important to the story as the words are, so I'd say it counts. This book was fantastic and everyone should read it immediately, especially old movie buffs. 5/5 stars

"I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too."

I don't feel like doing proper book reviews, part deux

These are the books I've read so far that I didn't do 'real' book reviews for. Sometimes* I am lazy.

– The Hunger Games books** (The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay) by Suzanne Collins: AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUGGHHHHH. I sort of wanted to make a gif post on my tumblr of how I felt about THG, but that would basically entail all my weeping, mindsplosion and "MY EMOTIONS" gifs, so yeah. 4/5
– The Attolia/Queen's Thief books (The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, and A Conspiracy of Kings) by Megan Whalen Turner [all from the library]: If you haven't read these, you're missing out. Flawed, real characters; intelligent, unanswered questions; so much badassery; TONS of political intrigue and machinations... I'm not sure why they're considered Young Adult; everyone should read them. They're set in a sort of alternate universe much like medieval/early Renaissance Greece. Fantastic. 4.5/5
– Love Poems (Every Man's Library): such an adorable little red cloth hardcover book, with its own red ribbon bookmark (I love that). Great poems, perfect size. 4/5
– Lyonnesse Abbey by Jill Tattersall: it's a sort of Regency romance/mystery, I think. Too many improper references (minor spoiler: someone in the book has a mistress!) to be a true Second-Generation Austen Book, too tame to be a bodice-ripper (nothing onscreen. Our Heroine will occasionally remember she's doing something Improper For A Young Lady, but it's usually, like, going about with muddy stockings), too obvious of a mystery to be a good mystery novel, etc. It was ok. I put it up on Bookmooch. We're told Tessa is like a tomboy or something, but she acts like every romance novel heroine ever, so. There is swooning, if I remember aright. I'd give it 3/5.
– Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur: A Mythological Dating Guide by Francesca Lia Block [library book]: Oh, man. I saw this while shelving and had to check it out. It's tailor-made for freaks like me who love mythology and personality quizzes. I had so much fun figuring what types everyone (family, friends, favorite TV characters) was.  I'm an Urban Elf/Giantess hybrid, if you're wondering. I loved this both ironically and unironically. 4/5
– The last two Princess Diaries books, since I needed something light and fluffy after The Hunger Games (PD IX: Princess Mia and PD X: Forever Princess) [library books]. I used to be obsessed with these when I was younger, but became irritated with them about the fifth book or so (coincidentally, I think I was about nineteen). Most series go downhill after that. In reading them I was reminded simultaneously of why I liked them (fun, enjoyable characters and their interactions, humor) and why I became impatient (too superficial, and Mia is denser than everybody except for Lyonesse Abbey's Tessa and Bella Swann). I was unprepared for this weird feeling I got when I finished Forever Princess, like a chapter of my life had finished. ~3.7/5
– The Dreamer by Pam Muñoz Ryan and Peter Sís [library book]: I already sort of wrote a review for this. Lovely book, although I'd have liked to know more of what his life was like after childhood. But I suppose that is for another book. Y such huge font, tho? I did like that it was green; Pablo Neruda wrote using ink that color, saying it was the color of hope (that's why that post of mine is in green). The illustrations were very dreamy and nice. The cover was lovely, as was the storytelling, but this wasn't *quite* as wonderful as I hoped/thought it'd be. Still, 4.5/5
– Lady of Palenque, Flower of Bacal (The Royal Diaries) [library book]: I used to inhale these when I was younger. This one I'd been meaning to read because it's about a Mayan princess. Highborn women were sometimes taught to write in that time and often acted as their husbands' scribes. Awesome stuff. I feel an affinity for Mayan and Mesoamerican cultures since I'm Hispanic; I do have some Mexican Indian (probably not the right term but oh well) in my genetic material somewhere, although it doesn't show at all. I'm sure the Lady of Palenque was an interesting person, especially since she could write, but we don't know much about her. This 'diary' was on the boring side and the writing was stilted, although I did like reading about the beliefs, customs and animals (we weren't given nearly enough of those). My name is very close to the pronunciation of a Mayan goddess's name, Ixchel (Lady Rainbow in English). I think it's pronounced 'eesh-chel'. This is the sort of thing that excites me. You can just call me M'lady Rainbow from now on. 3/5
– The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry [library book]: Lois never disappoints, but I enjoyed this book (a sort of satire on Old-Fashioned Books, especially those about Children In Dire Straits, which I usually love) rather less than I thought I would. The oldest boy is a sexist bullying prig and never gets the comeuppance he deserves (is it too much to ask for one oh-snap lecture from Nanny the BAMF? No, I do not think so.). Still, it was wryly funny and had a quip about Peter the Goatherd from Heidi (a childhood favorite) from the prig, no less, that made me laugh for about five minutes straight. I would recommend it but don't expect too much. Oh, Lois's author description of herself as an old woman hunched over a desk muttering to herself about commas sealed the deal: I really do want to be her when I grow up. ~4/5
– The Legend of Holly Claus by Brittany Ryan [library book]: The cover of this has lovely, intricate, glittering old-fashioned paintings, as well as wonderful black and white illustrations, and I love fairy tale and myth reinterpretations, so of course my inner twelve-year-old begged me to read this story about Santa Claus' daughter. It was good but I found the ending rather flat and too easy. I probably would have loved it when I was younger; I'm not sure if I spoiled it for myself by reading the (similarly lovely, from the same illustrator) picture book abrigement. What I liked best was the land of Forever, where the people from legends and myths and fairytales live and Santa Claus is king. I wanted to know more about it, and more about Victorian New York City, but alas. God only knows when authors will stop doing the "angelic, innocent girl and Byronic, brooding hunk drawn to one another" thing; I am mightily sick of it. Still, I liked this book. ~3.9/5

Wow, this was long. I really need to just force myself to write book reviews as I read the books and do one post per book.

*Most of the time.
**I would really like to use 'trilogy' here, but a friend of mine has made me paranoid about using the word wrong. You see, you're not supposed to call The Lord of the Rings books a trilogy because they are all one story cut up into three books because they were published during the wartime when they were rationing paper. This is one of that friend's pet peeves, and since The Hunger Games books are all basically one story cut up into three, similarly, wouldn't it be wrong to use trilogy here too? So I'm afraid to call any group of three books a trilogy for that reason. I have issues.

Adventists are the original hipsters.

Oh, we were vegetarian/vegan before that was trendy.
We knew smoking was bad for you before it was widespread medical knowledge. We knew it all along thanks to Sister White.
I grew up on Arthur Maxwell's children's stories. Oh, you've never heard of them? Non-Adventists usually haven't.
Jewelry/coffee drinking is too mainstream worldly.
POTLUCKS LOL AMIRITE. Yeah, it's an Adventist thing; you probably wouldn't understand.
My favorite food is wheat gluten/Ceder Lake products/Fri Chik/Special K casserole/etc. Mmmm, Roma. I'm totally craving carob chips right now!
We live longer than everyone else because of our awesome lifestyles. My grandma is 134 years old and still goes to church 3 times a week/volunteers everywhere/lifts weights/runs marathons.
Kellogg's has Adventist roots. That's right, breakfast exists because of us.
Round Communion wafers and wine are so mainstream. We have square crackers and grape juice.
What am I listening to? They're the Heritage Singers; you've probably never heard of them.
You're eating a bacon sandwich at McDonalds??? Bourgeois sheep BADVENTIST!!!
Going to church on Sunday is too mainstream. Saturday church-going is where it's at. Everyone else is wrong; we have the TRUTH.
We did that whole "JESUS IS COMING ON THE 22ND!!!!! Oh, psych, He didn't come after all... It's because we didn't count right/a spiritual judgment not visible to us here on earth happened instead!" first, before Harold Campbell and all those other posers.

What Seventh-day Adventists believe
Hipster definition from Urban Dictionary

For Pablo Neruda

And the words are all the more sweeter

Because you fought for them.

You never closed your heart,

Despite the rage of the father

And silence of others

And death of dreams and swans and things you loved.

You with your scientist's mind

And artist's eyes

Dreamer's heart

And poet's soul

Are one of the riches of the world:

Take all of God's bounty–

Nature, love, beauty and the rest–

And help us to see it again.

In you the circle is complete.

My first reader's advisory reference interview!

I've been volunteering at my local library this summer shelving books, and while I've answered patrons' questions about things like the age level of books and where to find books about America/the States/etc., I had my first real... I'm not sure what to call it, hence the long title. It's sort of a reference interview, I think, but the person asked me to recommend a book, so reader's advisory? I've learned the terms in library school but not quite what counts as which. Anyway.
I had some books in my hand and was frowning at a shelf trying to find the right place to shelve the book when this girl, about eleven or twelve, who had also been looking intently at the shelf asked me, "Do you know any good books? I'm looking for a good book to read."
Aha! I thought, this is exactly what we've been prepared for in our classes. "What sort of books do you like to read?" I asked her.
"I like Artemis Fowl, mythology, stuff like that. Adventure books!" she answered, smiling in that excited way children do.
"Well, let's see..." I perused the bookshelf, muttering, "Adventure books..." until I found something. "Have you read The City of Ember?"
"No, I haven't. Is it good?"
"Yeah, I really liked this one. Ember, the city, is the only bright spot in a world of darkness, and two kids have to figure out how to save it."
"Ooh, that sounds good! [...] Do you know if this book is good?" She held up The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke.
"Ooh yeah. I haven't read that one myself but I've heard it's really good. I've read some other books by her and I really liked those."
"Me too, I read Inkheart by her and really liked it, and Inkheart 2."
"Me too! I liked those."

I helped a child find a good book by putting my librarian training to use! *happy dance* I hope she likes it.

Last night I dreamed of things that are not real.
I was in Prague with my sister,
peridots could be purple as well as green,
zoo animals were kept in water like fish,
and I sat in a train while you walked past outside,
your eyes searching for my face.
My dream was accurate in this:
your eyes were piercing, serious,
and I both wanted and did not want
you to see me.