Miss Lowe's Book Nook

Adventure is out there! - Disney's "Up" I got a perm today. I have never done anything to my hair before- no dying, little to no straightening, I barely even blow dry it - so this is a big change. I was freaking out about it last night, so much so that I dreamt about all the ways it could go wrong, but now that's it's done, I kinda love it. This experience reminded me that now is the time to be adventurous. I'm twenty years old. How long will I get to have the freedom to do basically whatever I want? How many more opportunities will I get to do something as ridiculous as getting a perm just so I look more Scottish for a play? Sometimes adventure is little things- ordering something new at a restaurant, taking a different path to class, sitting somewhere new in the cafeteria. Sometimes adventure is simple things- dancing to Kesha and remixing musical songs with your friends, giggling too loudly in the library late at night, driving half an hour for Chi...

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. - Harper Lee I'm in college. I'm majoring in secondary English education. I have to read books for class all the time. In the last six months, I have finished exactly three non-required books. Do you ever have those moments when you're suddenly aware of everything? Like the air you're breathing, the sound of train horns in the distance, the feel of the ground beneath your feet, the brightness of the sun, the hum of the air conditioner? I have those moments fairly often. And there, in those still moments when the world seems to slow down around me, I remember reading. I remember begging my mom to go to the library twice a week, because I had devoured my checked-out books already. I remember asking my teachers to go to the school library nearly every day, and them sighing, letting me scamper down the hall to the room full of books I had already read. I remember going into Barnes an...

Hello all! College is again plaguing me with a lack of free time for reading. I finally got a book read because I read it on my phone! Ebooks do have some redeeming qualities. I finished up I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You , the first book in Ally Carter's Gallagher Girl series. I started this series when it first debuted, but fizzled out before it finished, so I'm going back to read them all properly! I had forgotten how much I enjoyed Carter's style and spunk. Our main character is Cammie, also known as "The Chameleon". She's the daughter of spies and now attending an elite spy academy (the Gallagher Academy, where the series gets its name), training to go into the field herself. Aided by her best friends, Bex and Liz, she gets into the average amount of trouble for a teenage spy. Two people come into her life and throw it out of wack- Macey, the rich, snobbish daughter of a prominent senator, and new Gallagher Girl; and Josh,...

Hello all! Again with the busy college-ing. I've really been into creative non-fiction lately, and so I picked up Amy Poehler's book, Yes Please . I recently finished Parks & Recreation , which Amy stars in, and I loved every second of it. Her book was right up there with Parks & Rec in how funny, heart-warming, and relatable it was. The majority of the book was essays, but they were all easy to read and fun. Amy traced her journey in comedy throughout her whole life, from her blue-collar childhood to being on SNL. She told tales of living purely for comedy and friendship in tiny apartments, the events surrounding the birth of her sons, how she met her best friends, and stories from her school days. There were also quirky and funky lists and letters sprinkled throughout, which I loved. Amy's personality shone through every page. Her essays, while on Hollywood-esque topics, all had relatable themes for the average person. My favorite essays were "Gimme That Pud...

College has been insanely busy for the last few weeks, but I've finally had time to finish another book. Searching for inspiration for my creative writing class, I picked up How to Ruin Everything by George Watsky. I had heard a lot of hype about it, and it's got a blurb from Lin-Manuel Miranda on the front, so I had reasonably high expectations. My expectations were thoroughly met. I've never been an avid reader of essay collections. They always seemed dry and boring, much less exciting than my traditional adventure novels and realistic fiction. I now have a new appreciation for essays and creative non-fiction. It takes talent and work to be able to tell your own stories on the page. Watsky did an amazing job with his essays. This book contained 13, and I loved all of them. If I had to pick favorites, I would say "Tusk", "Three Stories", and "Concert Tickets". Before reading his book, I knew nothing about George Watsky. I now know that he...

I am officially moved back into the dorms! I start my sophomore year of college next week, and I couldn't be more excited. But in the midst of all this excitement, it was nice to read a simple, easy read. I just finished This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen. It's one of her most popular books, and I liked it quite a lot! Remy Starr has had four stepfathers, and is about to have a fifth one. Her mother, famous romance novelist Barbara Starr, has flitted from husband to husband for Remy's whole life. With high school finally over, Remy is anxiously awaiting August, when she can escape to Stanford and a new life, away from her mother's writing quirks, her brother's lizards, and a long string of boyfriends. Remy knows boys- to her, they're formulaic, a set pattern that she can always predict. All are kept at arm's length, not seeing the real Remy under her fabricated exterior. And she likes it that way. You see, Remy doesn't believe in love. She's watched her ...

Hello, everyone, from a post-Cursed Child world! I have been reading a lot lately, but it's mostly been rereads of Harry Potter and then my first reading of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. (I didn't do a review of it because I'm not a spoiler-y monster.) But now I'm back in the real world, so I took a trip to space in the form of The Martian by Andy Weir. I loved it! On humanity's third manned trip to Mars, Mark Watney is the crew's botanist and fix-it man. All is going smoothly, until an emergency evacuation leads to disaster- Mark is accidentally left on Mars while the rest of the crew rockets back to Earth. Completely alone, he is thrown into a battle for survival on the barren Red Planet. With his botanical background, mechanical know-how, and razor wit, Mark becomes the hero the human race never expected. His every move is captured by NASA, sent to Earth, and analyzed by every news station. He becomes an intergalactic MacGyver on a survival mission. An...