Kira-Kira ~ Book Review #7

Hello, I hope you're enjoying my blog so far!

Anyway, I have come to give you another great book review about another great book. (on a sidenote; I only review the books that really deserve a review.)

So this book is called Kira-Kira, as mentioned in the title.
So this  book has a really good but sad story. But everyone needs a little bit of sad in their life, don't they?
So the main character of this story is Katie Takeshinma (yes, she is Japanese.). 
Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, describes everything as kira-kira (glittering.) The sky, the sea, and people's eyes are all kira-kira. But struggling to make ends meet after their small oriental foods store closes, they move from a small Japanese community in Iowa to the Deep South of Georgia. They move because their uncle offered their parents a job at a factory. Their parents work from 4 A.M to 11 P.M. So they never get to spend time with their children. But the parents are not the only ones struggling. Being the only two Japanese girls in the whole school, it is hard for them to adjust and for others around them to adjust. They are excluded from almost everything. But despite all this hardship, Lynn, with her special way of viewing the world, continues to teach Katie to see everything as kira-kira, and to look beyond tomorrow. But when Lynn becomes desperately ill, the whole family starts to fall apart and it is up to Katie to remind them that there is something glittering -- kira-kira -- in the future.

So that is my summary of the book. Do you want a spoiler? Well too bad, you don't get one. ^^
I thought it was a very good book. It is really touching. I cried a few times in the book. Honest. I recommend this to people that like realistic fiction, not really fantasy. Well, actually, I really like fantasy and I thought this book was really good so...
I'll just recommend it to EVERYONE. Yes. It's that good.
So be sure to put it on your "Books to read" list!
Thanks for reading!

Piano Exam!

Okay, so maybe you might be a little bored with all this piano stuff. But it's really important to me, so you have no say in this (hee hee!).

I had the piano festival/competition in, what was it, November? Yes. November. But the thing is, that piano festival/competition was just to help me prepare for the exam. Which is this Wednesday. Yes. The day after tomorrow. I have been practicing 5 songs for 1 whole year. Nothing but those 5 songs. Sounds kinda' boring, doesn't it? I thought so too. But I had no choice but to practice, and practice, and practice. And practice. etc. And so it all comes down to this. All that practicing and practicing and practicing. All that practicing so I can be officially prepared for the piano exam.

......

Oh gosh, I'm making myself nervous.

But anyway, I started this post, so I'll just keep talking. (writing, typing, whatever.) So not only do I have to do the pieces (perfectly) I have to do the scales (perfectly).

EVERYTHING MUST BE PERFECT!

And plus, exams cost money, and money doesn't grow on trees. So therefore, if I fail the exam (which is 60% and lower) all that $106.30 *plus tax will go TO WASTE. *echos on the WASTE*

But no pressure, right? Heh heh...

WISH ME LUCK!

Oh, and sorry I didn't post for a few weeks... I was... umm... uh...busy.

Have a good rest of the week!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hi, and Happy New Year!

Are you people going to be going to a countdown somewhere in your city, or to a friend's house for a party?

I hope you are going somewhere to welcome 2011 with your friends and family! 

The countdown is my favourite part! I anticipate the 3,.... 2,.... 1,....   HAPPY NEW YEAR!

And then comes the laughing and the hugging and the wonderful moment.  Happy New Year, you say to the people around you. You wish each other 'good luck' for the new year.

*sigh*  Good times, good times. Well, it's not a thing of the past, so every year, I go to the countdown!

Well, once again, I hope you have a wonderful countdown, or party, but above all, a GREAT NEW YEAR!!!

Thanks for tuning in!  May all the best happen for you in the new year!

Harrison Hot Springs!

Hello, fellow readers!

I just got back from a relaxing place called Harrison Hot Springs. It was really great! I was disappointed that it was raining, but I realized that the heavier it rains, the better it is. It's like this because when you're sitting in a hot pool, it's really nice to have raindrops splat on your face and cool you down. Okay, using the word splat makes it sound kind of gross, but it actually feels really good. I went there on the 24th and the 25th, so I couldn't send you a Christmas greeting, sorry...

But it was really great!! If you go there in the nighttime, they have the Christmas lights lit up in the trees, so it's really beautiful.

The fact that you're in an outdoor pool when it's 4 degrees outside is pretty cool. I have to admit it though, it wouldn't have been that fun if I hadn't brought my beach ball!

So if you ever decide that you've earned yourself a vacation and decide to go to Harrison Hot Springs, then be sure to bring some sort of entertainment, like a beach ball or a waterproof toy or something like that.

(romantic music plays) It's because of you readers that I got to go there.

Just kidding! hee hee~~~ 
It had nothing to do with you guys. *glares*
Anyway, I hope you have an awesome rest of your winter break!!
Bye-bye!

Winter Break!

Hello peoples!  How's your winter break? Mine is going really well! I've had so much fun considering it's only been a few days! Me and my mom have been planning to go pig out at this fancy restraunt at the University Golf Club, go shopping, borrow some books at the library, and so on. 

So far we've done.... none of that. But still, just the fact that I don't have to get up early to go to school is awesome! I have lots more leisure time since I don't have to spend 6 hours at school... 

Well anyway, since I am going to be (girly voice) "SHOPPIN' 'TILL WE DROPPIN'!"  I'm going to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year right now.  Get all those Christmas decorations up and turn up the volume on that Christmas CD!  I hope you all have fun at all of your Christmas and New Year parties! Let's all welcome 2011 with open arms, and bid a warm good-bye to 2010.

Thank you for reading, and   Happy Holidays!!

Snow...

SNOW!! Please fall... Why in everywhere else there is so much snow that there are EMERGENCY WARNINGS, but in Vancouver, there is rain? (stamps foot on ground) I'm so desperate for snow, I wish we had emergency warnings...

I don't understand why so many adults hate the snow! Well, yes, I do. The roads are dangerous, you have to shovel the driveway, and on and on and on. but in the childrens' perspective, it's a little something like this: SNOW DAY! Yay, no school! And Yay, snowmen and snowball fights and snow forts and sledding and all that!

So since I'm still considered a child, I WANT SNOW. SNOW SNOW SNOW!

This is a pretty short post.. shorter than I thought it would be... but oh well, I'll make a longer one next time!

Stay tuned for more exciting (not necessarily guarunteed) stories of my everyday life!

Book Review #6 ~ Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom

 

Now this is an example of a really really modern book. Not to mention an example of a really really good one.

So this book is about a girl named Violet living with her little sister, Rosie, and her single mother, Ingrid. This is how Ingrid became single. See, Violet's father is a director for movies and stuff. So Ingrid decided to go and surprise her father by visiting him at the studio. So Ingrid takes 9 year old Violet and 2 year old Rosie to go see their father. They ask around for him, and no one knows where he is. So they go and knock on the door of his trailer, and there is no answer. They were still standing there when another trailer door opened nearby and  a woman with long blonde hair and tons of make-up stepped out. Followed by Violet's father, buckling his belt. 

You know that expression, "the colour drained from his face"? That's what happened to Ian, Violet's dad, when he spotted them.
You can kind of guess the rest.
Now Violet is 12, and Rosie is 5.
Her mother is now desperate to find a replacement for Violet's father and starts to date all kinds of guys that are clearly not acceptable, from alcoholics to men who steal things from Violet's mother while they're on their date.
Then one day, her mother meets a man named Dudley Wiener. Yes. It's an unfortunate name. And by this time, Violet has had it, so she tries to set her mom up with George Clooney, her mother's favourite actor. Violet actually has hope for it, because her mother used to work as a hairstylist at a studio that George Clooney was shooting at. She did his hair, and he must've liked her, because he gave her an autographed photo of him that said, 'May our paths cross again.' So she sends a letter to him. But, to her dismay, the letter was left unanswered.
Later, Violet and Rosie go to visit their father, but the real reason Violet is going is to meet George Clooney, because her father lives in L.A. Her father happens to be directing a movie at the same studio as George Clooney. So she plans to follow him along to the studios, find George Clooney, and talk to him about marrying her mother.
As it turns out, she is not allowed to go to the lot where George is shooting, so she steals a golf cart, manages to drive it close to the lot, but crashes into George's car, get's a nasty roadburn, a twisted ankle, and almost a concussion. (ouch that's a lot of boo-boos) She thinks that she spoke to George Clooney, but everyone tells her that he had been shooting the whole time, and that she must've been hallucinating. But later, when she gets back home to Vancouver (!) (My hometown!), she recieved an autographed photo of George Clooney that said, 'To Violet. A better daughter than she is a driver.'
Those were the last words of the book.
So that kind of tells me that she did actually talk to George Clooney. Lucky.
Well, that's my book review! I hope you liked it, and I hope you will read it! It was hard for me to pry my eyes off the page when I read it, so I think you will feel the same!
Thank you for reading!
See you next time!