The Genius of ABC's Castle

This is literally my favorite thing to blog/talk about. Like seriously. So please excuse any excessive fangirling that may occur.

Castle follows the life of best-selling mystery novelist Richard Castle (Firefly's Nathan Fillion), who lives with his daughter Alexis (Molly Quinn) and mother Martha (Susan Sullivan) in New York City. He begins shadowing Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic, Quantum of Solace, For Lovers Only and CBGB) and her two partners Detectives Kevin Ryan (Seamus Dever) and Javier Esposito (Jon Huertas) when a serial killer starts committing murders the same way Castle does in his books. He comes up with his new series, clearly based on Kate and the gang, with its main character named Nikki Heat. The TV series has had many ups and downs, through the ongoing investigation into the unsolved murder of Kate's mother, a Triple Killer, a mystery father, relationships and much much more.

Castle premiered mid-season on March 9, 2009 to an audience of 10.76 million viewers. It's first season was limited to only 10 episodes but lived to gain a half season (13 episodes) renewal for the next year, which was then increased to 22, and even more to a full 24 episodes.

Now in it's fifth season and going strong, Castle continues to draw in large audiences week after week and is a lock for a sixth season renewal. In fact, right now, as I type, they are filming and celebrating their 100th episode!

When after 4 fabulous seasons, Kate and Castle finally got together in the April finale, I thought this show just couldn't get any better. And boy was I wrong. There's this little thing that is feared in the world of television romances, and its called The Moonlighting Curse. Moonlighting quickly went down hill and was soon cancelled after their two leads finally got together. But Castle is proof perfect that that Curse does not exist if dealt with correctly (in their defense, Moonlighting also went down due to a writers strike...). 

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

I'll try not to give away too much.

Kate and Rick have been through a lot together over the last 10 months as a couple. First they found out who hired the hit on Kate's mother, had to come to terms with the fact that they can't stop him just yet. They tried to hide their relationship from their coworkers, which resulted in some hilarious precinct hijinks. They spent a weekend in the Hamptons...where a body just had to fall into Castle's pool. Castle was framed for murder by 3XK. They were kidnapped by the mob. Castle forgot to buy Kate a Christmas gift, and then screwed up her Valentine's Day present by putting it in her boss' suit jacket instead...And finally, in Monday's conclusion of a two-part event, Castle discovered who his father was while rescuing his daughter Alexis from the kidnappers who took her to Paris.

It's been an eventful season, and I can't wait for what is coming! 

I love the show as a whole, but there are some things in particular that I believe make this show so endearing. 

Brilliant Creator and Writers

Andrew Marlowe and his wife Terri Edda Miller are the masterminds behind Castle and Andrew has said in the past that he based a lot of the relationship between Castle and Kate on he and his wife. They spearhead a group of amazingly talented writers who have come up with everything from ice bullets, to dream sequence scenes, to XFiles and aliens. Social media, especially Twitter, has helped fans get to know Andrew and Terri, as well as other writers, producers, editors, and crew. He answers questions and live-tweets with fans. He's even taken fan suggestions and integrated them into the show (ex. Kate now calls Esposito "Espo," and the ship name "Caskett" was acknowledged on screen as well). Without Andrew and his incredible team, we wouldn't have Castle in the first place. 

On-screen Team of Stana and Nathan

These two are amazing. The looks. The eye-rolls. The hair. The eyebrows. Everything they do is perfection. I may be insanely biased, but I seriously wonder why these two have not won Emmys yet. They can do funny. They can do heartbreaking. They can do relationships and teasing. They can get to your heart. 

Always

Character Development

My favorite character's story arc is that of Kate Beckett. In season 1 she was a by-the-book detective, hard as nails, and driven to to the people behind her mother's murder. She wanted nothing to do with the nine-year-old on a sugar rush that was The Richard Castle. In season 2, she saved his life by killing the man who was hired to kill her mother before she could get answers out of him. In season 3, she told Castle that she was tired of having one foot out the door in her relationships and that she wanted someone who would jump into it with her together. In season 4, Kate sat Castle down on some swingsets in the park to tell him that she had a wall around her heart, that she wouldn't be able to have the relationships she wanted until that wall came down, and her mother's murder was put to rest. She took the initiative to work through her PTSD (after she was shot in Season 3 finale) with a therapist and realize that all she wanted was Castle. Her arc is so easy to relate to. She has a strength about her that is very appealing, as she works in a "man's" world. Kate is by far my favorite character.

The Relationships

Rick and Kate. Rick and Alexis. Rick and Martha. 

Kevin and Javier. Kevin and Jenny. Javier and Lanie. Kate and Lanie.

The Fun of Cast and Crew

HAPPY 100th CASTLE!!!

ok, enough with my fangirling...

Watch Castle on ABC at 10/9c every Monday night! 

And catch reruns Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays on TNT!   

My Gaming Past

I am not much of a gamer. I'm terrible at pretty much everything.

But, back in the days of Super Nintendo and blowing on the games to get them to work, I was pretty awesome at one game: PAPERBOY! 

In it, you had to ride a bike down the street delivering the morning paper. You had to aim correctly and have the correct timing to be able to throw the paper on the doorstep. And then of course you had to avoid random tires that rolled out in front of you, other kids on bikes, cars, and people. And you got in big trouble if you broke someone's window with a paper...

 

 And then there was Nickelodeon Guts! Anyone remember that show or game? Good times...child gladiators! 

 As a preteen, I was gifted with a Gameboy Color. A purple one. And I loved it. My game of choice on that handheld? Mary-Kate & Ashley's Winner Circle. You got to chose which twin to race with which horse and which saddle. I, of course, always chose Mary-Kate because everyone knows she is the more athletic twin who admittedly likes riding more than Ashley does. I could play this for hours. And I did, filling many road trips with it. I still have it too! Another favorite game of the Gameboy Color? NickToons Racing! You could choose which character--from Rugrats, Hey Arnold, Wild Thornberry's, Spongebob, Angry Beavers, and CatDog. That one most definitely raised my frustration level--especially when that mean Angry Beaver always tried to pass me! 

Other than those, I was pretty good at basketball games and MarioKart/Donkey Kong, but not much else. Video games have always eventually made my eyes hurt so I never got hooked on them. Luckily neither did my brother. We were more outdoors-y, being kids of the late 80's and early 90's. But we played together often, which was great bonding time in my mind. My brother would help me get farther in Donkey Kong and be patient with me when I forgot which buttons did what.

Moving into the modern day, my roommate Jessi is the closest I get to video games. She LOVES Final Fantasy. She doesn't play terribly often, just when she needs a break. And it's actually quite fun to watch her play since the game has a strong storyline as well. A lot of people get sucked into watching her. I especially like watching her blow up the droids on Lego Star Wars.

 It's very rare to see me in front of a video game. But I do appreciate the artistry and the ability to actually know which button to press and when...

The Rory Gilmore Challenge

 Rory Gilmore has inspired a massive reading effort throughout the blogosphere. I came across this challenge on Pinterest and thought, hey, lets have some fun! So if you're feeling adventurous, have at this list--the most complete list I have found of every single book that Rory was seen reading or was mentioned some other way throughout all 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls. 

And remember, in the words of Rory Gilmore, "Reading is Sexy," and nothing is as "cute as Pushkin!"

1984 by George Orwell
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
The Art of Fiction by Henry James
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Babe by Dick King-Smith
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
The Bhagava Gita
The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy

Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
Candide by Voltaire
The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
Christine by Stephen King
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père
Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Cujo by Stephen King
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Da Vinci -Code by Dan Brown
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Deenie by Judy Blume
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
The Divine Comedy by Dante
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Don Quijote by Cervantes
Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
Eloise by Kay Thompson
Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
Emma by Jane Austen
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Ethics by Spinoza
Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Extravagance by Gary Krist
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (TBR)
Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
Fletch by Gregory McDonald
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg

Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
The Graduate by Charles Webb
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (TBR)
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry (TBR)
Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
Henry V by William Shakespeare
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III (Lpr)
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
Howl by Allen Gingsburg
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
The Iliad by Homer
I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Love Story by Erich Segal
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Manticore by Robertson Davies
Marathon Man by William Goldman
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
The Merry Wives of Windsro by William Shakespeare
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Night by Elie Wiesel
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan

Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Old School by Tobias Wolff
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
Oracle Night by Paul Auster
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Othello by Shakespeare
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Property by Valerie Martin
Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Quattrocento by James Mckean
A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien
R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
Roman Fever by Edith Wharton
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
Sexus by Henry Miller
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Shane by Jack Shaefer
The Shining by Stephen King
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers
Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore

The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
Songbook by Nick Hornby
The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
Stuart Little by E. B. White
Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
Time and Again by Jack Finney
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Unless by Carol Shields
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Daughter of a Librarian

I literally grew up in a library. 

I am the daughter of a librarian and an elementary school teacher. Books were surrounding me at all times. There was no way I would not end up loving to read. I even once spent the night in the library (the power was out on our side of town due to a massive snow storm so we stayed in the warm library). A lot of my childhood memories revolve around my town's public library--singing at the top of my lungs over the intercom after hours, carrying a stack of books as tall as me back to my mom's office for her to buy me from book fairs, reading in the wooden train cars in the children's section, playing with the date due stamp, taking over the employee break room with VHS tapes and a roll away TV...even my Girl Scout meetings and summer sign language classes were held in the library! It was my second home. I've been up and down these rows of books thousands of times, perused the shelves countless times, and fell in love with the written word.

My favorite book when I was very little was Martha's House, a "First Little Golden Book" that belonged to my grandmother, who's name was also Martha. It resided behind the glass of her book case in her living room for as long as I can remember. It was published in 1982 and the printed price on the cover reads 69¢. It's a very simple book aimed at toddlers, following the little girl Martha and her puppy through the different rooms of her home, from the front hall where she hangs her coat, to the laundry room where she helps fold the clean clothes, the bathroom where she draws on the steamy mirror after a hot shower, and the garage where she keeps her tricycle. 

My grandmother lived about 250 miles away from me and we would see her maybe 2 or 3 times a year. As I visited her when I was older, I would see this book sitting in her bookcase and smile thinking about all the memories that the real Martha's house held. I came to realize that the rooms described in the book were the same as the rooms in my grandmother's house, just with slightly different memories--the kitchen where I would watch the food cook through the window in the stove door, the living room where my grandmother would play ragtime music on the piano, the backyard with the basketball hoop attached to the garage, the front room where we would take off our shoes and coats. It was familiar.

That tiny little toddler book meant more to me than I realized it did. It was really the only thing that I was very adamant about keeping from my grandmother's house after she passed away. That little book made the 1500 mile journey out to college with me and now resides in its new place of honor on my own bookshelf.

It is almost impossible to name my favorite book now. So I'll list a few that make the top of the list. 

First, Heat Rises by Richard Castle (third in the Nikki Heat series). 

Yes, this is a book written by a fictional person portrayed by Nathan Fillion in the ABC crime drama Castle. It's incredibly meta. But I am a big sucker for crime and a big sucker for TV tie-ins! 

Next, Across The Universe by Beth Revis. 

I end up reading a lot of Young Adult fiction because of my roommate, Jessi. She is studying to become a Young Adult author and dragged me to the Provo Library last year, directly to the YA section and then directly to get my own library card (which i TOTALLY recommend). We usually find ourselves perusing the YA section most of the time. Across The Universe is the first in the series and is based in a future sci-fi type world where people have been cryogenicly frozen, placed on a ship named Godspeed, to later inhabit a new planet called Centauri-Earth. There's suspense, murder, outerspace, and romance. It's excellent!

Third, Delirium by Lauren Oliver.

 

I did a book report on this book for my Adolescent Development class last semester and fell in love with it. "Love" is a good word to describe this book because it is based on a future society that has deemed love to be a disease and have come up with a cure to save citizens from the awful disease that leads to "death." But right before Lena is supposed to receive the cure on her 18th birthday, she meets Alex, who teaches her that love is not such a bad thing, it's a great thing in fact. 

Finally (for this list anyway), the Harry Potter series.

Now I'm WAYY behind the times with this one. Don't kill me, but I have yet to actually finish reading this series. The first chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was always like the 1 Nephi 1 of the series. I read that first chapter soooooo many times. I think my first mistake was to start reading the book after the first movie came out, so all the description of characters at the beginning was incredibly boring to me...so I started reading the series again last summer. I got half way through Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire before school started up and I had to put it aside in favor of boring textbooks. But once I graduate in April, the series is at the top of my list to finish right away. I have seen all the movies and have yet to be completely disappointed in the movies portrayal of the books that I have read so far. We just read an article in my Media class about using the Harry Potter series in therapy. I think this is GENIUS! "Bibliotherapy" makes total sense! My favorite line of the article pretty much summed up how I feel about books and what they do for readers. 

"The Harry Potter books have a wonderful capacity to draw us in through the power
of our imagination. Then, paradoxically, just as we think we have escaped from the world, they help us to find the power to live in it. The places and characters we imagine sustain
us as we struggle with places and people who trouble us, including ourselves."  

Books are important to me. Always have been. My second home was that library. I will forever be grateful to be the daughter of a librarian.

You're Gonna Make It

Some days you just can't help but smile. Some days you realize how blessed you really are, how much you have been given. Some days you realize that you can do things on your own and that you don't have to worry. Some days you get inspiration from Mary Tyler Moore.

You're gonna make it after all. 

And then on top of that realization, you get a Valentine's Day care package from your brother, sister-in-law, and baby (almost) sisters who live 1500 miles away. You really start to feel the love.

I just finished reading a book called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell for my Sociology class. It was incredible. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to everyone. Gladwell explains how we never rise from nothing, we are all products of many different people who help to shape us and help to become the people we are. This book made me realize how much I have been given and how many people in my life deserve a massive THANK YOU for all they've done to give me the life I have. So this post is dedicated to all of those amazing people...and here are a few of them.

 My fabulous fabulous family. My grandparents, who loved me always, who gave me a love of Beanie Babies, gave me memories of Christmases, Easters, & birthdays, who held me and loved me no matter how short they were in my life, who gave me a legacy to continue. My parents, who brought me up in a happy home, who taught me to love education and books, who paid for all of my schooling, who taught me to be kind and how to find my way in the world. My brother, who taught me how to play basketball, spent hours helping me practice my free throw, set an example by going on a mission, improved my fashion sense. My sister-in-law, who latched onto me and our family long before she became a part of it, who set an amazing example of perseverance and kindness. My sister-in-law's family, all 8 of them, for loving our family, including us, and helping us, for drawing me pictures of flowers and rainbows.

 My incredible youth group leaders. They've done more for me than I have ever realized. Yes, they took us canoeing and camping, to the beach, to Nauvoo. But they taught us incredible lessons along the way. They taught me what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, how to be an example, how to be a leader, how to get along with others. I remember one year when I was around 15, our girls were not meshing well, we could just never get along properly. So they took us camping, and unbeknownst to us at the time, they brought us so that we could bond and do group oriented activities, to learn to trust each other and cooperate. We had to lift each other through car tires without letting our bodies touch the side. We had to get out of a human knot. We had to sit around the fire and tell everyone about our first kisses, our favorite body parts (that was a hoot!), and our desires for our lives. I feel like this camping trip was a true turning point for us. From then on, we were practically inseparable.

 The youth leaders I had growing up never gave up on me. They still want to know how I'm doing and what I'm up to. They still love me no matter how old I get or where I am in the world. They set incredible examples for me and I will never forget the influence they had in my life. I hope to become even just a fraction of what these women are.

My amazing Seminary teachers. They truly never gave up on me. Admittedly, seminary was not at the top of my priority list. I had to do at-home seminary where we met once a week before mutual activities (because I lived too far away from the church building to get back before school started). No matter what anyone says, at-home seminary is 10x harder than early morning seminary. Yes the early morning people have to get up early and go to the church building...but they also occasionally get away with sleeping through it. I had to write papers after papers after papers! I was behind, but I knew I needed to get everything done to give me the best chance at getting into BYU. My two teachers gently nudged me to get everything completed in time and I most definitely owe my getting into BYU to them--for teaching me and for writing recommendation letters. You've most definitely had a role in making my college dream a reality.

I'll be graduating from Brigham Young University in exactly 72 days. It's been an amazing four years and I owe a TON of my success here to the people mentioned above and so many more. Thank you for helping me to become (and continue to become) the woman I am and want to be.

We are all products of many other people. We are given special opportunities to move higher in life. We are taught lessons from the people around us--both intentionally and unintentionally. You yourself may just be contributing to the success and life of someone around you. 

I'm gonna make it after all.

And Just A Few More...

Phase Two of my favorite songs post...

I'm from near Gary, Indiana, the home of Michael Jackson & family, so of course, I must love that man. 

Pitch Perfect is one of my favorite movies in all creation, and although I despise Nicki Minaj, I do love Pitch Perfect's cast (and fans & Mike Tompkins) cover. Please excuse any language. 

And there's the beautiful voice of Hunter Hayes. He makes me melt. Like seriously.

And the obligatory Taylor Swift. I still don't understand what is going on with these random animal costumes, but I do think it's pretty awesome that it was filmed all in one shot! 

I had this obsession when I was younger, with S Club 7, the British group put together by the same man who formed the Spice Girls. They had their own TV show on ABC Family back in the day. It will forever be a favorite. 

Another classic from 2002. LMNT "Hey Juliet"

Mark Ballas. Yes, the one from Dancing With The Stars. He's actually a pretty fabulous singer. And this is his music video for his song "Hotwire" co-starring his dancing partner (at the time) Chelsea Kane, of Disney stardom. 

And that's all for now folks! 

x

Life's a Happy Song

I love music. It has such a way of speaking to me and being able to capture my emotions perfectly. Since this is music week in media class, I thought I'd take a look at my own personal music choices.

My ambition was to right down and blog about every single song that ran through my head (even if it be only a single line) for the entire day. That plan quickly failed when I realized the enormity of that goal. I had already heard 5 songs before 8:30am--much due to my roommates radio alarm going off three or four times.

So I changed my plan to include some of my favorite tunes, looking up my iTunes playlist for "Most Played." So here goes!

Every good day begins with Duran Duran right?! This morning graced me with "Hungry Like the Wolf."

Yeah. Take this song however you want. It can be quite risque if you think too hard...but that's 1982 for you. It's just so darn catchy! 

And then there's the men of BYU's Vocal Point with the voices of angels, with the classic "Danny Boy" (a final verse added).

I could listen to this song for the rest of eternity and never get bored. "Danny Boy" has always been a favorite of mine since I was in an elementary school choir called "Nifty Notes." I sang this song over and over again for a few good months and for some reason, it stuck with me. I often have it playing on Sunday mornings or while I'm reading or doing homework. It's relaxing and a nice way to wind down and focus.

Another classic. REO Speedwagon. "Keep On Loving You"

Enough said.

Next up, Lifehouse's "Crash and Burn"

The chorus of this song is what I love the most:

 And if I fall and crash and burn
At least we both know that I tried
And as I crawl there's lessons learned
Yeah, they remind me I survived

This song is always there to pick me up if I fail. It reminds me to try no matter what. You never know what you can do it you don't try and there are amazing things to learn from failures as well.

Another strange selection: "Piano Man" by Billy Joel. Not entirely sure why I like it...

Another Billy Joel favorite: "Vienna." I first fell in love with this song when it was featured in the Jennifer Garner & Mark Ruffalo film 13 Going On 30. It's been somewhat of an anthem for me since.

Favorite lyrics are as follows:

Where's the fire? What's the hurry about?
You better cool it off before you burn it out.
You got so much to do and only so many hours in a day.

Slow down, you're doing fine.
You can't be everything you wanna be before your time

 Slow down, you crazy child.
Take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while.
It's all right you can afford to lose a day or two.
When will you realize Vienna waits for you?

And that takes us to the voice that is Jason Mraz, or Mr. A to Z if you prefer: "I Won't Give Up On Us."

Perfect lyrics. This is what I want. Someone like this song describes. And on another note, it reminds me that "God knows we're worth it," and He "knows I'm tough enough." Definitely a shower classic, this one! 

Another one similar to Mraz is "Arms" by Christina Perri. 

I hope that you see right through my walls
I hope that you catch me, 'cause I'm already falling
I'll never let a love get so close
You put your arms around me and I'm home

That says it for me. Exactly.

I'm not usually a fan of American Idol, but it produced another gem with Phillip Phillips (side note--why would you give your kid the same name as your last name?!?! whatever...). This song makes me think most about the USA women's gymnastics team at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. It was their theme song, and quickly became mine too.

Settle down, it'll all be clear

Don't pay no mind to the demons, they fill you with fear

The trouble it might drag you down

If you get lost you can always be found

Just know you're not alone

'Cause I'm gonna make this place your home

And finally (for this post at least--more to come), I leave you with Charlene Soraia and her rendition of "Wherever You Will Go."