Give Me Some a-Hoping

What I'm a-Loving: my best friends and feet gloves (otherwise known as fuzzy socks)

What I'm a-Feeling: a little stressed, a little lonely, and a little happy

What I'm a-Looking Forward to: WINTER BREAK!!!

What I'm a-Eyeing: Rainbow Narwhals

What I'm a-Listening to: Candlelight-The Maccabeats

What I'm a-Reading: Let it Snow: three holiday Romances by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle

What I'm a-Chewing on: There is tons of cheer filling the air I'm sure you know, as many of you (and myself) are intoxicated with such holiday fanaticism that the smiles simply will not melt off our faces, but rather freeze there as our breath swirls foggily around our heads. It is always at the end of the year during these cold winter months (global warming or not) that people feel the most need to celebrate. But why now? Can't we just smile and spread cheer any time of the year (did you spot my clever rhyming?)?
Don't get me wrong: I love the holidays, in fact I look forward to them a little more than the average person even though I'm Jewish. Yet I can't help but feel people feel that if they are good just around the holidays messing around and being ungrateful can be the norm the whole rest of the year. Does giving twenty cans to Harvest Food Bank really mean you can get away with wasting food? Does taking out the trash 3 days straight without Mom reminding you justify arguing and being rude the rest of the year?
In my opinion, good deeds should be done all the time, not just during one allotted time a year. Sure, concentration of good deeds may vary with every paycheck and available time, but people are needy all times of the year not just during the holidays. I think people should find different ways of supporting the community, not necessarily with charity but with volunteer work. Or perhaps just being nice to your parents for a change (I need to work on this, I think everyone does).
So what do you guys think? Do you believe that good deeds are only for the holidays or that good deeds are presents for any time of year?

What I'm a-Writing:

For those who cannot speak
I write words they already know
hear
speak
they speak
those eyes
hushed and daring
preying and praying that this mouth of theirs will one day open
their tongue will furl once more
like the sail of a ship where the air is parched and the wind so crisp and clear
it's words sting your mind like jelly-fish with truth
"A" as in apple as in America as in amIsolowthatyouthinkIcan'thearwhatyouaresayingaboutmedammit
they'll say
in their minds
and let their ears take the place of sailing ships to become shells
that capture whispers of some sort of truth
they wait for me to say what they wait forever for
"U" as in umbrella and Uganda and uhavecoicesobeautifulicanhearitinmytoes

Review: Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts

Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts is a story about four teenagers who, after an earthquake that demolishes the West Coast, are left struggling to survive in the new world that is presented to them, where some people have gone crazy and kill any normal humans left. Okay, so that's a very brief summary; there are plenty that are longer, but that one sentence pretty much tells you a lot you need to know about this post-apocalyptic novel.

I'm not normally one for action novels - I tend to prefer contemporary or dystopian - but I have to admit that this was pretty good. It's a new take on both the normal apocalyptic and zombie novels, so that it doesn't fit either one completely and sort of becomes its own genre. The plot is well laid out, if a little simplistic, but the author handles it in such a way that she gives it the depth it needs. While each character's goals can be confusing at times, they all share one common hope: to get out of this new, unknown world alive. And it's not easy, either to the readers trying to guess the final outcome or (I assume) the author, trying to figure out this same thing.

However, as with any book, Dark Inside is not without its faults. The beginning of the book is incredibly good; as the plot continues, though, I started to get characters mixed up (I completely forgot who Clementine was, for example, until I read a chapter and just stared at her name, trying to figure out what I apparently knew about her). This could be because not all of the characters are given much depth - I couldn't really connect with any of them, although maybe this is because the 300+ page book is divided between four viewpoints. Also on the topic of characters, after about a hundred pages or so even they start to become a little boring - they're all living a similar life, and two of the characters don't meet until around page 200 (the other two don't meet until 300 pages into the story, and the two groups hurriedly meet up another 10 pages after that).

In terms of plot, it seems great at the beginning, slow in the middle, and rushed at the end. The concepts presented are great, but in some places they start to become a little repetitive: Narrator fights crazy person. Narrator kills crazy person. Narrator gets away, with some loss. Rinse and repeat.

This may seem like a lot of problems and not very many good aspects, but the fact of the matter is, this is a great book - just with some major flaws. I'd definitely recommend it, because for a lot of it (even in the repetitive parts, simply because of the action) it's an impossible novel to put down, even if you read it online like I did and couldn't actually physically put it down. If you're willing to overlook the faults, then it'll be an even better book, and it's great for people who like action, adventure, and even a little romance - plus, if you're starting to get tired of the stereotypical zombie novel, this is a fresh take on it. So that's why this story gets 3 out of 5 stars with a definite recommendation to read it if you're willing to look past a few things.

Welcome to Butterflies, Books, and Besties!

Hey, it's Kitty! I'm one of the contributors to this blog and just wanted to say thanks for checking us out!

You're probably wondering a bit about the focus of this blog. It's going to cover a lot - book reviews, stories that Mira and I write, and just complete and utter randomness. In fact, it's pretty much impossible to predict what's going to happen with this blog, so we just hope you're able to hold on and keep with us!

~Kitty