The Friday Society

     Some of you may remember hearing me talk about Alex and the Ironic Gentleman, one of my favorite books when I was younger (and still towards the top of my list).  This was author Adrienne Kress's debut book, cleverly written and ingeniously original in concept.  However, with no other books to go off (because it never turned up at the library, I wasn't able to read the sequel, Timothy and the Dragon's Gate), I was left to wonder about Adrienne Kress-- was she as brilliant an author as Alex implied, or was it a beginner's luck of sorts?  Did she put all of her inspiration into this book, or were there more brilliant stories to come?

     Thus, I was extremely intrigued when, several years after Alex, I came across a collection of short stories called Corsets and Clockwork: 13 Steampunk Romances, which featured a story written by none other than Adrienne Kress herself.  Now, I wasn't any more excited about the idea of steampunk romance than I am about any other type of romance, but I dutifully read the book-- and was shocked.  Adrienne's story stood out far above any of the others-- Yes, it was a romance story, but I liked it.  It was told in such a brilliant way that I almost forgot I was even reading romance.  She took the same guidelines as all the other authors in this book and made it her own: Her story was completely original, and it managed to be different while all the other stories were dully similar.

     Now aware of Kress's ability to write YA as well as children's books, I was very excited to learn about The Friday Society, another steampunkish YA story, this time an entire novel.  I was thrilled when I could finally get it from the library, and I read the whole book in an afternoon.  I loved it.  The plot was slightly less involved than Alex, but it was by no means dull.  The story follows several different threads that seem to be completely unrelated, but they all end up fitting together in the end.  This type of writing, which is also used frequently by Jaclyn Moriarty, is absolutely my favorite literary style.  I became attached to the three main characters, Cora, Nellie, and Michiko, and was impressed by the way their lives kept colliding throughout the story, eventually terminating in their forming a crime-fighting alliance(Spoilers! Highlight to read.)

     I now have a newfound love for Adrienne Kress's YA books, and I absolutely can't wait to read Outcast, Kress's latest YA book.  (This one, I've read, is sort of a quirky paranormal story, which should be right up my alley provided it doesn't have any sparkly vampires in it.) 

Art!

Hi everybody...
I realize that I haven't posted in FOREVER, but I have been quite busy with school and whatnot.  However, I'll be out of school after this week, so I'll try to do more posting over the summer.

Anyway, I took a year of art class this past school year, and I think I might have made some pretty cool stuff.  So, here are some photos of various projects I think I did a decent job on.  There are a few projects I left out of this post, which I might post later.  Also, please forgive the poor picture quality-- I had a tricky time getting the angle right on some of them.

1. This is a random collage I made with a guest teacher one day.  I've always had a thing for making these completely ridiculous and random collages... and this one is no exception.

2.  My art class also did linoleum block printmaking, and I think that mine turned out pretty well, though I kind of went insane trying to carve out all of those tiny spirals.  (By the way, I had to make the print based off the art of a specific country that I picked out of a hat... mine is Greece.)

3.  This is a scratchboard drawing I did for a Day of the Dead art show.  I actually think the frame turned out better than the actually piece on this one, but I still had fun making it.

4. This an abstract line drawing that turned out to be not so abstract because I decided to put a duck in it.  From a distance, I think it looks pretty neat, just don't look at it too closely.

  5.  This is a project where I had to cut shapes out of a piece of black paper and then flip and transfer them to the opposite side of the paper.  I did Batman, obviously.

6.  In between projects, I had some free time, so I made this random steampunky sketch thing, which I think ended up looking pretty cool.

7.  Finally, I did a project where I took a square and transferred  it over and over again until it covered the entire canvas.  Most of my class did flowers and stuff like that, but, ya know... chickens.

These are just the best ones I think I did, but you could feel differently.  Leave a comment and tell me what you think!  If I get a lot of positive feedback, I might post some more art from this year.

 Band update:  I'm still looking for one.  Anyone need a mandolinist or violinist?  I've been thinking about trying the guitar lately, too but if there are any bassists, drummers, singers, guitarists, or keyboards out there, or if you have a preexisting band I could join, please leave me a comment or email me at thetoothpickchick@gmail.com.  Thanks, ya'll!