Twilight!

I recently had the pleasure of seeing the new Twilight move: Breaking Dawn Part 1.  I must say that having read the book, I was expecting to be a little disappointed, movies always seem to leave out something from the book and I am let down.  That was not the case with this movie at all!  It was almost exactly as I imagined it as I was reading the book.  I love that they were smart enough to know there was no way to do the book justice in just one movie and broke it up into two parts.  To all you other Twilight fans out there, if you have not already, GO SEE THIS MOVIE! You will not regret it! :)

Scarlett Letter

While I did enjoy most of this story, I also found it very hard to read at parts.  There were so many times where there was no action and just way too much description for my taste.  Many times I caught my mind wondering and realized that while my eyes had been reading the words, none of them had really absorbed and I had no clue what I had just read.  I would then skim along until the story seemed to get interesting again.  Despite all this, I did actually enjoy the general story line.  It was like a glimpse into the past, into a time when people were trying to be more religious and closer to what they thought God wanted.  It was sad how judgmental they all were, especially of Pearl.  She was just a child, yet she was made to suffer for her mother’s sins by being an outcast.  The other children mocked her and the adults seemed to think she was the spawn of the devil.  Through all this though, she stood up for herself and was able to grow up and be happy and successful.

Fresh Leaves

Of all the authors from the last pod, Fern was my favorite.  I like her sarcastic, snappy attitude; as it is much like my own and made me smile.  I especially liked “Fresh Leaves, by Fanny Fern” where she writes of the reviews she anticipates.  My favorite line was “We regret to be obliged to speak thus of a lady’s book: it gives us pleasure , when we can do so conscientiously, to pat lady writers on the head…”  I laughed a little at the mocking of how woman authors were viewed by men, much like a little kid who has done well at a very simple task or a dog who has learned to sit.  In  my head I thought “who’s a good girl? Aww what a great job you’ve done!”  I love that while she knew how her works would be viewed by the male society, she kept on writing and working hard to get them published.

Snow-Storm

One of my favorite of all the Transcendentalists readings was The Snow-Storm.  Not because I particularly love the snow now, but because it reminds me of when I was younger.  Growing up we lived way out in the middle of nowhere, so when it got bad, we were literally snowed in.  My parents never failed to make the most of these times.  They would bundle my four sister’s and me up and the whole family would trot outside to build forts and snow families, dig tunnels, and have snowball fights.  Reading this short and sweet poem kind of took me back to this fond childhood memory, and made me a excited to make the same memories with my children this winter.