The Bees Knees

Recently, my dad recommended me the book "Show Your Work" by Austin Kleon. It combined a lot of infographics and quotes in the form of newspaper poetry to give many artists and creators ideas for developing ideas and sharing them with the world. As an aspiring musical artist, this book gave me a lot of useful advice when connecting with my audience. His main ideas are encouraging people to show their work in the form of sharing their progress and ideas, stating that maybe successful artists aren't afraid of showing their step by step process. He used examples such as a very famous ribs food truck, who described the detail of his step by step process in making his famous ribs on live television. While most artists like to "gatekeep" and keep the secrets to themselves, Austin's argument was that knowing the process is one thing, but mastering it is another.  Austin also encourages artists to have a website and a blog where they update their audience on the pro...

                I know what you’re thinking, “Wow, she hasn’t done anything about FNaF in a while,” and it’s going to stay that way for a while. But let’s dive into today’s target…               Have you ever recalled a memory that you know has happened but when you talk to someone else who was there, they don’t remember it ever occurring? Then you try to explain how it has to have happened because of [insert point a] and [insert point b] but they still can’t recall that moment? But what if you had a best friend one day and the next no one remembered they even existed?               Memorial is a Webtoon about a high school boy, Minhui, who forgets the face, name, and just about everything about his crush except that she was just talking and walking with him at school yesterday. In fact, when he looks for her name i...

 by Sophia Chen Funeral Songs for Dying Girls  is a book by Métis author Cherie Dimaline about a girl living in a cemetery who is in love with her childhood best friend and finds out ghosts are real. It sounds incredibly cliché, I know. I thought so too, when I first picked it up off the shelf a week or two ago. But the cover was irresistibly interesting, and the last line of the blurb -- "But when Phil, an actual ghost of a teen girl who lived and died in the ravine next to the cemetery, starts showing up, Winifred begins to question everything she believes about life, love and death. Especially love" -- caught me so off-guard that I knew I had to read the book to find out what was going on there. It's safe to say I didn't regret that decision. Firstly, Funeral Songs for Dying Girls  is an excellent read, just in terms of prose. I've never read one of Dimaline's books before, but this book made me want to check out more of them. The dialogue was funny but als...

 When trying to think of a blog post, I was stuck on what I should write about. Then, I realized that so many of my posts have been about mangas and ranking them. However, I never even stated what I deem a "good" manga! This post will basically be skimming my brain to see how it works! I will talk about Waiting for Spring  by Anashin, since I believe this manga is one of the best I have ever read. I think many things go into being a good book, let alone being a good manga. As someone who is very picky about what she reads, my brain goes through various "checklists" that send off signals, telling me I will enjoy it. First, we have the first thing that most people notice: art style. To put it simply, if someone doesn't have a good art style, I will not enjoy it, no matter how many other boxes they check. If it has a bad art style, I will refuse to read it. An example of this is Classmates by Asumiko Nakamura. On the other side of the spectrum, you have Waiting for...

(DISCLAIMER: This review is NOT based on the paperback version of the book. This is based off of a different online version which holds the same plot and same story as the book!!!)               If I asked what defines good and bad, I’d get a lot of different answers. Good and bad are what individuals like to ponder yet can never actually define them or what makes them different. The book Not Even Bones paints a terrific picture of how vague and undefined the line between good and bad is.               Starring Nita, a young woman who strives to go to college and who loves dissecting bodies maybe a little too much, this book narrates her journey of attaining power and the struggles of how she reaches that goal. From killing probably hundreds of people on an island where no one who was held captive there ever made it out alive to tell the tale, to taking ...

Hello all. This month, I will be covering "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller. I first read this book back in 5th grade for an online literature course, and recently re-read it in my free time. Despite being quite dense, I think the themes within this story are very prominent, and has topics that we can all relate to. Although this story is actually a written play, the book version is read in the form of a script.  This story takes place in the 17th century, right in the middle of the horrific Salem Witch trials. The main character's name is John Proctor,  who was a dramatized version of the real-life John Proctor who was murdered along with his wife during the Salem Witch Trials. Towards the beginning of the story, he finds himself facing multiple accusations. Truthfully, he actually had an affair with another woman named Abigail, and has been hiding the secret for a year. While I won't tell you the verdict and spoil the ending of the story, the play revolves around a lo...

by Sophia Chen I'm sure you've heard about it already, but if not, The Twilight Saga is a series of four books (plus a few bonus novels) by Stephenie Meyer about a shy, awkward damsel in distress and her dark and mysterious vampire boyfriend. (There are also movies, but I prefer to go by the motto 'the books are always better.') If you're looking to read The Twilight Saga , you should obviously read them in order. Doing otherwise would be... ineffective, to say the least. However, I had no other ideas for a book blog. So in this post, I'm rating the books in the Twilight Saga (which I read in 5th grade) from worst to best. Starting with, drumroll please... Life and Death. 1. Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined For anyone who doesn't know, Life and Death  is basically Twilight  (the first book), gender swapped. Now, while I can normally appreciate a good gender swap fanfiction, the key lies in the word good . This is not a good book. The new names are horrib...