review: books... "The Summer I Turned Pretty" by Jenny Han

rating: 4 out of 5

rave: it's a good summer read. captures perfectly the essence of summer and fun under the sun.

bottom line: ehhhh.... i say.... read it.

synop: Belly's life revolves around the summers she spends in Cousins beach. The other 10 months of school is just a count-down until the next summer.

Every year every since the dawn of time, she spends her summers in the beach house with her mother's best friend whose children are her best friends too: Jeremiah and Conrad.

Belly has had a crush on Conrad ever since she was little, but will he ever see her as a girl, and not a playmate?

This summer, things will change. The boys will see her for who she is: not as her older brother's sister, but as a girl.

Rant: i think that this was a ehhh read... i'm really right down the middle: i mean, the beginning & middle were very well-writtten, but i did not like the end.

when i first read the synop, i thought that it would be another shallow teen romance, but i gotta say that it wasn't: there was depth to the novel.

and i think that what set it apart from those other books is that there is change in it:

Jeremiah's father is getting estranged from the family (divorce?),
the guys see her as a girl (!),
her brother is going off to college (!),
and she has a summer fling, which sort of got me mad b/c of how.... i don't know.

on top of that, Conrad was a total ass this summer: he would get drunk all the time, he stayed locked up in his room 99% of the vacation, he also had a summer fling with another girl (not that Belly didn't do the same thing, but hey...) i mean, it would have been fine if he didn't end up w. her.

thing is, i don't think that he deserved Belly's love.

even though he had a good reason to act like an ass, i still felt that it was unacceptable. Jeremiah was going through the same thing, and he wasn't an ass to Belly the entire summer. Maybe it was b/c of different personalities, ways of seeing the world, or watev, but i don't find that as a valid excuse.

Belly had pined her entire life for Conrad, and he was an ass that summer. a total ass. he alienated himself from the rest of the family, and he didn't deserve her.

especially since Jeremiah loves her. the cute younger brother who has always been there for her. but apparently, she doens't feel the same way.

maybe Han is trying to show that you fall in love with who you may, and he may not be perfect, but you're in love with him anyway, but i felt that Jeremiah deserved better than Belly's rejection for a guy that didn't show any interest and on top of that was out-right ignoring her.

life: PREAKIN OUT

so... now that july is rollin out, i'm phreaking out about summur hmwk.

here's the horrid list:

1. read a chapter The Black Death

2. take notes

3. read the ENTIRE A World Lit Only By Fire

4. write an ESSAY on the both of them

5. read the ENTIRE Frankenstein novel

6. read the ENTIRE How to Read Literature Like a Professor (even tho my phresh lit teacher really liked it & claims it to be an amazing book)

7. watch the Matrix (i'm serious!)

8. ID all the countries on Europe (all of them! who the frigg is able to tell Yugoslavia & Czechoslovakia apart?!!)

it's just horrendous. it's phreaking me out. i mean, i have to read 3 WHOLE books (one of which is nonfiction), write an ESSAY when my brain's writing cells have been dead for weeks, AND be able to i.d. all those teeny countries on europe that nobody has even herd of!

nice.

good job.

cause i was the one to choose these A.P. classes.

i thought that AP Euro would be exciting, but rite now i'm just dreading it.

like, really, really, dreading it b/c it's something completely new--they don't teach european history in elementary school! it's going to be a LOT of history--all those countries, revolutions, kings, dukes, oh god.

so i'm starting now.

so far, frankenstein is okaaayyy i guess. the letters were soooo boring.

Summer!!! Almost, but not quite.

ok.

so summer's almost here. meaning many things:

1. finals!!!
2. summer job!!
3. driving will re-open on july 3rd!
4. taste of lincoln ave
5. working @ danny's
6. vay-cay!!!

so.

SUMMER JOB.......................................................................................

this is the first time EVER i've actually looked for a summer job. i mean, i've always worked @ my mom's place for no pay ever since 2nd grade.

but i guess now i want more things--i want a flat iron (which i got), a new ipod (which i got)--i guess i just want to spend more overall.

but every single time my mom pays for something--food, clothes, ect. (esp. the clothes part) makes me feel guilty.

i mean, she woman works 12 hours a day weekdays + 10 hours on weekends. for herself. so she will never get a pay raise.

so i applied.

@ first i only thought of walgreens/cvs because there's one everywhere! @ my grandparent's place! @ my parent's restaurant! close to my place!

but they aren't known for paying well. but the convenience!! (no duh! that's why they're called convenience stores!) i can be anywhere, and it will work out. @ my grandparents'. @ my place. @ my parent's workplace.

and then i expanded.

to a plaza/shopping plaza near my grandparents' place: they have:

a chinese place (i have experience!! but i don't wait tables. i'm a terrible waitress. and they don't have computers--you have to memorize prices. and write down all orders. all day. no.)
a chinese buffet (i have experience!! but i don't speak mandarin. not really.)
an old country buffet
a borders
an office deopt
a famous footwear
a payless
and a sally beauty store

so yea. that's a LOT of oppertunities.

so i looked online @ http://www.payscale.com/ to see the average pay with my non-existant work experience and lack of hs deploma.

pay:

old country buffet: $6.25-9 avg. $7
borders: $6-9 avg. $7.38
Walgreens/CVS: $7-9 avg. $7.80
office depot: $6.75-10 avg. $8.06
sally beauty store: $7-11 avg. $8.55


wow!

i could not believe that sally would pay that much. or that borders would pay that little. and i called them, they're hiring!! but then i can only stay over @ grandpa's. yuck. all summer.

so i'd rather work @ the CVS then. close to home. no need to wake up w. my parents so they could drop me off work.

but!!! that's what i'll app for.

APPLYING

borders has an online app, which is nice.

walgreens also has an online app

CVS has an online app

old country buffet has a paper app you needa bring in

sally has a paper app you needa bring in

office depot has a confusing search engine for jobs that i refuse to use b/c it boggles my mind.

so... verdict: top two choices: either CVS or Sally.

i'll prob end up choosing Sally for sure if they do accept my app. but just not work all 5 days.

Finals!!.......................................................................

so... this time around... i'm actually scared of a LOT of finals.

my lit final: reviewing all the different genres of am lit + 7 lessons worth of vocab words.

geometry: review concepts. i HATE circles, exponents, and i don't know if i can still solve the orchard unit problem.

my chinese final: i ALWAYS miss ~3 questions on there. it's all written, so you have to remember what you have to say, and know how to write it.

my chem final: as always. but i feel like i've been sorta actually understanding chem lately. except now i hafta remember ancient stuff.

my choir final. it terrifies me. as always. but i feel like as long as i kno the circle, everything's cool. i mean, i've seen the notes i took, and i don't have a lot to review, and it scares me. maybe i'm missing something.

i'm SO happy i dont' hafta worry about APUSH+PE.

they way my schedule is planned out, i should only have two hard finals to worry about each day.