J Z

math teacher material

Y'all know or heard of Jay Z right? He's a successful rapper, married to Beyonce and all around G.

The reason I am describing this guy to you is not because I am so into his style and music and just want everyone in the world to hear about it, it is because my math teacher has the initials J.Z. and everyone calls him that, teachers and students alike.

I find it really, really, extremely funny because he is the furthest thing from Jay Z. First of all, he's a math teacher. Little different than a rapper.

SIDE NOTE: You don't even know how many times we have tried to get him to rap but he refuses so my theory is that he's secretly an amazing rapper and practices in front of his mirror into a hairbrush every day.

Next, he is so socially awkward that it's hilarious. Not to mention that he's already hilarious on his own, bringing up random facts and using weird examples in class every day. Not the same as the swag the real Jay Z has going on.

Some examples of his funniness:

"This homework will be 5% inspiration, 90% perspiration and 5% deodorant."

"Your presentation  needs fun-ness. Wear silly hats. Also I might look at the content."

"I have 2p....what's so funny?"

"There's no fire and I can't find it!" 

So he officially has the Best Nickname Ever because it came about naturally from his name and because it doesn't suit him so much that it does.

2012 End Of Year Book Survey

1. Best Book You Read In 2012? (You can break it down by genre if you want)

NOT GOING TO CHEAT. I have to say The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Seriously, this book made me laugh, cry, and want to throw it across the room. That's pretty talented for an inanimate object.

(Shameless self advertisement: Read my review! http://thecontentsofmy-brain.blogspot.ca/2012/10/how-to-cry-for-half-hour.html)

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

HANDS DOWN Rebel Heart by Moira Young. I adored Blood Red Road and recommended it to everyone I knew whether they wanted a recommendation or not and even the people who weren't asking who ended up reading it loved it. It was just that good. So obviously I was PUMPED for the sequel. But it did disappoint me a little. I didn't hate it in the slightest, it was just not as good as I hoped.

3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2012? 

I was most pleasantly surprised by Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake. The only reason I read it was because it kept appearing on people's favourites lists so even though the blurb didn't really draw me in, I decided to go for it. And I'm glad I did.

4. Book you recommended to people most in 2012?

Probably Blood Red Road. It's a known book, but it's not a "thing" the way Hunger Games or Divergent is. So while everyone knew about those two, I could recommend this book and they wouldn't have already heard of it! 

I think these things through.

 5. Best series you discovered in 2012?

This is a hard questions to answer because it's been a year of sequels for me. Lots of the books I read in 2011 came out with sequels and that's what I've been keeping up with so I've gotta think hard for a series I discovered this year...

I GOT IT! It's a tie between Cinder by Marissa Meyer and Legend by Marie Lu. They're both so inventive and they draw you in and make you want to find out what happens next. But, alas, these are the first books so I've got some time before the next installments come out to sate me.

 

6. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2012?

I have to give this one to Kody Keplinger. Her books are not of the dystopian genre, which is mostly what I read. They are just stories of life and boys and normal things but they are SO WELL WRITTEN. I don't know how she does it at such a young age but she is amazing at capturing exactly the right feelings for everything. I mean, she was my age when she wrote her first book. 

7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you?

I'm going with outside of my genre being non-fiction. So I read Ellen DeGeneres' biography called Seriously...I'm Kidding and laughed my butt off the whole way and also How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown which was perfect for me. It told a story, was funny and had science!

 

8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2012?

Enclave, by Ann Aguirre, was such a great book! It was one of those where everything just kept happening and just as you found out something, another thing popped up that you needed to find the answer to and couldn't possibly put it down to go to school or some other trivial thing.
Luckily, it is relatively short compared to the kind of books that I read normally so it was finished in an afternoon and I didn't have to go through drastic measures to keep reading it.

 

9. Book You Read In 2012 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year:

I will most likely reread The Hobbit by the great JRR Tolkein. I read it over the summer to prepare myself for the one week we had that was Hobbit themed at my camp but since the movie has come out, I'll probably watch it and then end up rereading it sometime in January to compare the movie version and book version.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2012?

Cinder and A Million Suns by Marissa Meyer and Beth Revis, respectively, take the cake in this category. Cinder was especially creative when combining the slipper from the Cinderella story along with the cyborg twist. And then I love outer space and A Million Suns' cover was so gorgeous!

11. Most memorable character in 2012? 

I'd say I remember Deuce from Enclave by Ann Aguirre the most. She was capable, fought for what she believed in and never let someone else do something for her that she could do herself.

 12. Most beautifully written book read in 2012?

I'm sorry. But beautifully written prose doesn't get to me unless you include confusing me. I need my books given to me straight up, no implying and dancing around the point. And if it doesn't confuse me, then I don't notice if it's nicely written because I am too engrossed in the story. Shout out to all the books that fall under this category that I didn't notice. You guys were great.
But I need a book here so why not Mo Willems Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs. Props if you've read it and double props if you found the Easter egg from Willem's previous books. (Hint: PIGEON)

13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2012? 

Took me a while to go through my mental list (slash Goodreads list) of books but when I happened upon Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay I knew it was definitely the one. The first half made you so hopefully and then reality struck and it just made you realize that life probably won't have a storybook ending.

 

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2012 to finally read? 

If I Stay by Gayle Forman. This book came out in 2009 and I only read it last year? What was wrong with me. It was a very intricate story with flashbacks from her life before and you never actually knew what her choice would be until it happened. Tres good. And I liked the sequel even better.

 

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2012?

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer had so many amazing quotes that were very true but also were funny in an understated way. Such as:

"Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books."

"Isola doesn't approve of small talk and believes in breaking the ice by stomping on it." 

"I don't want to be married just to be married. I can't think of anything lonelier than spending my life with someone I can't talk to, or worse, someone I can't be silent with."

 

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2012? 

SHORTEST: Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems. I still read picture books. How can you just stop reading something you totally grew up with?

LONGEST: Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore. Fun fact, this book came out super near my birthday yet I had to wait for it at the library. I dropped major hints about wanting it as a present but the friends and family did not take heed.

 17. Book That Had A Scene In It That Had You Reeling And Dying To Talk To Somebody About It? (a WTF moment, an epic revelation, a steamy kiss, etc. etc.) Be careful of spoilers!

I'm just going to give this to The Fault in Our Stars by John Green because can you really beat the plot twist of all plot twists? The one that you could NEVER imagine coming and makes you want to read more but also want to make a pyre and burn the book for playing with your emotions? I don't know how my friend (who read it before) me held it in because that is pretty much impossible. You just NEED to tell someone about the injustice of it all.

18. Favorite Relationship From A Book You Read In 2012 (be it romantic, friendship, etc).

Liesel and Rudy's relationship in The Book Thief by Mark Zusak was beyond adorable. Even though they spent most of it as a friendship and only started liking each other near the end, it was just perfect. All their adventures and them being there for each other. I want that.

19. Favorite Book You Read in 2012 From An Author You Read Previously.

Actually, most of the books I read in 2012 were sequels so that's going to be a toughie. Let's just go with Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore because her books are among the tippy top of my favourites list. I had read Graceling and Fire and just fell in love with that world so when it comes to another installment the only answer is YES PLEASE.

20. Best Book You Read That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else:

I am pretty independent in my book-choosing methods so pretty much none of them were recommendations.  I'm the one that gives the recommendations out to other people. I'm like their Jedi Master teaching them the way of the good books. But my friend lent me the book called The History of the World According to Facebook by Wylie Overstreet which she told me was really good and I think that counts even though I knew about it before. PS it is hilarious and really good.

Looking Ahead

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2012 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2013?

So many books literally everything is something I want to read and there is never enough time. There's Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green because I NEED to have read every single book of his and also Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor since everyone's been raving about that one and Incarnate by Jodi Meadows because I actually started that but never got a chance to finish it and now I feel bad. 

And those are just some.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2013?

- Shades of Earth by Beth Revis

- Prodigy by Marie Lu

- Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

- Mind Games by Kiersten White

- Just One Day by Gayle Forman

...to name a few.

3. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging In 2013?

For sure I need to read a minimum of 100 books, that is always a goal I achieve every year and I'm not about to stop now. Also I want to read more non-fiction, especially brain books because they interest me soooo much!

As for the blog I'd like to have a wider audience, maybe 15 followers by the end of the year (I know, aiming high.), and also be able to connect with readers and other bloggers alike, get in on the community of blogging since I am just a noob now.

These are ALL the books I read last year, you can just paste this into the URL thingy at the top of your internet to see them! I'm sad I couldn't mention every one in this End of Year Book Survey so here's their chance to shine.

http://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/216833

Also, sorry for the slightly late post. Technically I'm still in January so 2012 is recent enough!

How To Cry for Half an Hour

So I finished The Fault in Our Stars last night. I figured it would only take a day since John Green is such a good writer (if I swore, I would've used some extra words to describe his ability to write) and then me and my friend obviously need to rehash the entire book together at school today. Obviously.

TFiOS hat!

This is a good of a time to mention it: since I already used the picture of the cover of the book in a post and I am in no way, shape or form a picture repeater, I have decided to fill this post with all the TFiOS swag I've seen while roaming the internet.

So I loved it. Augustus Waters is the most perfect boy known to humankind and it's really a shame that he's fictional. But then again, every girl in the world would absolutely hate each other since we're all going for the same guy.
And their conversations were hilarious and also deep which, congrats John Green, I don't normally enjoy but these were pretty enjoyable. But I don't know if I want to be on the side that says "Normal teenagers don't talk or think like that. We're all awkward and just not anything close to that." or on the one that's all like "That's cause they weren't normal teenagers. They'd never had normal lives and had lots of time to develop all these thoughts about life."
The plot was perfect, there was so much fit into it, like Augustus and Hazel met, they went on adventures, some heart-wrenching things happen and that was the best I could do to tell you stuff without spoiling anything at all. At least I didn't just start a sentence and then stop.
And, of course, with about 80 pages of the book left to read, I started bawling. It really was that sad. And I knew it was going to be sad so I didn't promise to myself that I wouldn't cry. So I literally cried from then until the end of the book. It was just so sad and I didn't want it to happen but it had to.
What surprised me was that the ending was really good. Like once we got passed the horribleness, the tying up the loose ends went very well. Normally, authors just leave you a little too soon before you're ready to be let go and there are a lot of unanswered questions (Except Eva Ibbotson. Love that woman. Her loose ends and triple-knotted and covered in bubble wrap.) but this book managed to answer those questions and also make me happy and have hope and smile.

So yeah. Anything I read in the next while is just going to SUCK in comparison.

Annnd, since I am a Quotations Girl, here are my favourites:

cutest thing of life

“I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, then all at once.”

“Oh, I wouldn't mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you.” 

“Books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal.” 

"...the existence of broccoli does not, in any way, affect the taste of chocolate.” 

"Tomorrow?" he asked.
"Patience, grasshopper," I counseled. "You don't want to seem overeager. 
"Right, that's why I said tomorrow," he said. "I want to see you again tonight. But I'm willing to wait all night and much of tomorrow." I rolled my eyes. "I'm serious," he said. 


“And I wondered if hurdlers ever thought, you know, 'This would go faster if we just got rid of the hurdles.” 

Gus's father: "Our children are weird."
My dad: "Nicely phrased.”