What's up guys?
This is KreativeVein and today we'll be going over how to calm yourself down.
For me, this is extremely important as I'm the type of guy that gets into fights often,
both verbally and physically.
While I still get into fights from time to time, I can now control myself to where I
know which fights I will fight, the ones that benefit me, and to know the fights that I
shouldn't fight, the ones that would get me suspended from school, lose my social connections,
or harm my family.
So we'll be going through 4 tips to control yourself, all of these have worked for me
and I'll give you some brief examples of them working and when I should have used them.
Before we get into it, be sure to smash that like button like you'll be smashing your calmness?
Yeah that doesn't fit.
And subscribe if you haven't already.
Step 1: Exercise
My father always told me this.
While my grandfather was a very successful man, he and his son, or my dad, never got
along well as they were rarely around each other.
And when my grandpa was around, he would criticize my dad and they'd get into fights.
Instead of being angry and lashing out back, he would go outside and just run.
He was one of the better track athletes in his school and instead of wasting his time
sulking around, after running he would go to the park and just chill with his friends
instead.
Similar with me, I remember one time I was throwing all my shit against the wall because
I felt anger, and then my dad told me how childish that was and that I could just workout
instead.
I would punch a heavy bag that I had from boxing or just lift.
It's not best to only exercise due to anger, as the point isn't to exercise to get back
at others but to improve yourself, but it does turn your energy into something positive
that will help you.
Step 2: Realize That It's Not Personal
This is kind of just a concept that you need to make a habit of telling yourself, but when
people get mad at you, it's normally due to their own insecurities, someone else getting
mad at them and they want to release it onto someone else, or something similar to that.
My own father has never made me extremely angry, but sometimes other family members
will...
I guess, test me in a way where if I'm improving myself by sleeping earlier to wake up early
to workout, they'll make some underhand comment about how my style of life is backwards and
retarded.
The first time this happened I punched the shit out of the wall and yelled, but was it
worth it?
Nope, I couldn't sleep after that and the day after I was groggy as fuck.
Instead, just realize that the person that said that to me, while family, is lazy as
hell and whenever I go to sleep early, they realize that I'm making improvements that
they aren't, and they want to rationalize it.
Don't ruin yourself.
Understand that you are the first person in your life that matters.
Don't play into their games.
Even in school I see some people calling other students "try-hards," as if trying hard in
life is a bad thing.
Obviously don't make it seem like you put in too much work, learned that from intuition
and the 48 Laws of Power, but in reality do put in work.
Step 3: Breathe and Stay Silent
I'm not telling you to meditate here, but take a few seconds to breathe.
If it's in front of other people and you don't want to cause a scene, just act natural but
take some deeper breaths and just keep quiet.
You'll most likely want to comeback at them with something, but if you're angry most of
the time you'll end up looking like a joke.
If you can remain calm and just let the other person make a few jokes about you and just
laugh it off, that's alright.
Or, if the jab is very personal and you should respond, then once again, remain calm and
just explain to them that it's pretty immature.
Obviously calibrate this to your situation as if this is at school I would sometimes
just fight the person, but in a professional setting don't lose your job.
Breathe and reply calmly, or if possible, just don't say anything.
When my mother was getting angry at me for no reason other than that she had to make
dinner that day (I'm in high school), instead of attacking her again, I just set the table,
and ate in silence.
After about 5 minutes of her rambling through emotions, she calmed down and we ate normally.
Step 4: Leave the Situation
Once again almost everything is based on situation.
There are times where you should stand your ground and not just leave the room.
However, I know that if I stay somewhere and I don't calm myself down enough, it's best
that I just leave for a few minutes before I hurt someone.
I've burned many bridges by not just going to the bathroom and clearing my mind by breathing
but rather by punching that person in the face in front of other kids.
Everyone takes jokes at times, so if this is the one day out of the month where you
get roasted by your friends, don't go super saiyan.
But, if people are messing with you daily and it's not you but rather them that pick
on you for your race, where you come from, or anything else, you should leave the company
or social group.
It's not worth settling somewhere where the people just generally do not like you.
And unless you have a major goal and this is just a stepping stone that you will get
through in a year or so, it's not worth it mentally.
There are many other social groups that won't make you the butt of the joke and many places
where you can work where people accept you.
Or you could even just be self-employed and work in a work-space with other entrepreneurs.
That's all the steps for today, step 1: use the energy to work out, step 2: realize that
it isn't personal, step 3: breathe and use silence, and step 4: leave the situation (both
short term and possibly long term).
If you have any other tips please let me know in the comments down below, and subscribe
if you haven't already, KreativeVein, peace.
For more infomation >> 4 Tips: HOW TO CALM DOWN ► HOW TO CONTROL ANGER | How to Stop Being Angry ► Calm Yourself | Kreative - Duration: 7:04.-------------------------------------------
Skincare Holiday Haul Sephora Edition! 節日折扣狂購！－ [KIKI&COCO] ENG SUBS & 中文字幕 - Duration: 14:57.
Cut one of sephora haul.. sort of skincare edition
welcome to our Channel I'm Kiki and Coco, and
today we're going to be talking about
some of like the stuff we've gotten from
Sephora over the last like month.
yeah we got a lot and we haven't filmed
it in a while so we're going to break it
up into a lot of parts. Starting with skincare.
Yea, so some of the stuff we got when we
had the vib rouge sale and some we kind of
purchase afterwards but i think you know
Black Friday, boxing day sale they
all have like different events for it.
yeah so I guess we'll just start off
with something that I've already talked
about so I don't want to talk about too
much it's the Luna this this is the mini
two and basically this time they came in a
set for like $159 but which is the price.
Yea same price as this.
Which is the price of this itself
usually but because it's, I guess their gift
set edition so they've instead given us
like two cleansers and one is for day and one is
for night. Now I've tried both them and they're
kind of mediocre. Oh, I've seen like good
reviews on Sephora from it, but i guess to
each your own. yeah like what I mean like it
cleans well but I don't...
it's not like magical or like I'm not
going to repurchase that you know that sorta
thing like that's what i mean by
mediocre so there's not much to say
about these and to be honest, I don't know why there are
day and night even like it feels similar, but
yeah so we've talked about this already
if you're curious i will link the video
down below about the video where we
talked about it but this is amazing and
it was such a good deal.
ok so my other thing is kind of a
restock and we've talked about this before
as well it is this lancome gel cream cream
it's like a gel cream cleanser but
there's nothing gel about it, it's
just like really cream. I mean, not much to say about
it cleanses really well it was in one of
our empty products so maybe we'll link that
as well!
this is great yeah it's definitely been like
one of my go-to and I ran out so why not
buy it on the sale. Cleanses well
oh yeah it lasted a long time too, just
literally a pea-sized amount would give
you enough to like wash your
face fully. Yea it's amazing, I've been
using that cleanser for like the last
like five years. Another one that we
wanted to talk about that we both
purchased is the good genes sunday
Riley and this as you can tell is the
bigger size. yeah the biggest size
that they've ever come out with and
it's more worth your value too. yea for
those of you already watch our channel
you know that i am personally obsessed
with it like I've gone through like
three four bottles of the regular size
already so with the twenty percent off
I've decided to purchase like their
jumbo size. Granted it's still a lot, cause
Sunday Riley is expensive but this is
definitely worth your value. It's probably
the only value size product on Sunday
Riley actually did come out with yeah i
mean they do like gift sets, but I
don't even use some of the products and
those gifts and all mini size too, so it's not really worth it.
like it's good if you want to try it out
but...
yeah we're not going to talk too much
about this either because we've talked
about it multiple times, but it is like you know lactic
acid, it like helps reduce fine lines...etc
We know what we like. so this is kind of just
restock almost. So next it's kind of a
last minute last day of the sale like: oh I
feel like... Oh my stomach just growled.
We're really hungry.
Last day of the sale I just wanted to
like buy it before I wouldn't be able to
get it again.
so it's these like Sephora sleeping masks. i
got like so many different types i got
avocado, pearl, algae, orchid
and lotus they all do different things and
I just love them I love them more than
traditional mask, where you have to put it on and
wait for 30 minutes because i'm lazy i
can just put it on and go to sleep just
make sure your hair is out of the way. Do you have to wash it after?
It's not recommended, you don't
need to but I mean when you wake up in
the morning you're gonna wash your face
anyways but i love these, these feel
moisturizing they're like to give you a
radiant glow depending on what it is to.
I dunno, for me nighttime masks i go to
sleep with, they don't really work
that great on me like I've tried like a
giant variety and they're a little bit
like too oily for me. Like these tend to
have a little bit of oils in them I
think usually. And I....I don't think
these ones, these are just like clear gels or
No, I've had clear gel ones too and
I kind of break out the next day just
too oily and it just like clogs my pores
or something. So I personally prefer like
sheet masks. But either way these are five
bucks and with every one, I've never able
to use one just for one session I
probably break it up to five because
you've got a lot of it too. i can just
take it out.
Oh wow really yeah because like there's
only so much you can put on your face,
that's true so it's definitely worth it
i say i think it'd be like a dollar or
less per mask or per use. which is
amazing and it's very low-maintenance if
you're like me and you don't want to
spend that much time and it's such a good travel thing
to go with too. So another thing that I
want to talk about is something that
I've never used before this is the... I'm
sure a lot of people will know about this
the Claudalie Beauty Elixir, it's extremely pricey
so I was kind of doubtful when I got
my hands on it. I was like huh maybe I should or
shouldn't but I thought like hey why not give it a
try. Might as well buy when
it's on sale otherwise just return it
if you don't like it. right? so this is their
special edition Jason Wu one. Now,
special edition meaning that there's
nothing like an ingredient changes just
the bottles changed because it's jason wu
so this is. Same pricing though, yea same price.
and so umm... this smells.. it smells kind of
like you know like for those of you
have never tried sunday riley as well
it's like that weird herbal slash like
lemon grassy like... yeah it's not like the most
fantastic smell for people and
apparently it does bother a lot of people
and this kind of like one of those
products but i'm ok with it maybe it's
because I'm used to this whole sunday
riley thing so I'm definitely okay with
this and i tend to use this to kind of
just wake my skin up especially if i'm
studying or in front of the computer for
a long time and i feel like my skin is
just gonna dry out and I just give like
three spritz of this and this is amazing
it just smells so good. I mean when she gave
it to me smell I already felt a bit
energized too yeah it's like it's almost
kind of like it's got a slightly cooling
effect as well and generally i don't
know about you but i found a direct
correlation between if products don't
smell the greatest they tend to work more
for you because they're not they're not
adding like fake stuff to make it make
it likable for you and that part
of your nose but they're actually
putting ingredients in that would be
good for your skin. So i usually I
try I'm okay with things that don't smell
the greatest but work for your skin
I mean this is this one of their like
main things that they've had for like
years and I can tell you for a fact that
because I've been to shangri-la and they
have a Claudalie spa in
Toronto and the entire spa smells like
that as well. The spa just smells like the
beauty elixir. which is like... there's a good and a
bad thing there i mean for those
people who aren't used to it, they're
gonna find it strange but I think it
smells great.
this visibly smooths features tightens the
appearance of pores provides a
burst of radiance to the complexion.
so this is really good and it's a hundred
percent natural fragrance so i would
definitely really might recommend this
if you can you know afford to spend
little bit for something like
this. For sure, moving on,
so next is not much of a skincare but
more of a maintainace thing for your for
your... well I guess it can direct to skin care
because you do need to take care of your
brushes for your skin to be good but there
there we go
It's this cinema secrets makeup brush
cleaner and I got to show you later cause
this is amazing but I wouldn't recommend
you doing it often. you still gotta wash your
brushes but what it is it's kind of like a
quick fix right? Yea a quick fix, a brush cleaner that you
put your solution here you dip your
brushes and all the makeup dirt will
come off and you wipe it off and a
towel. It's very effective and it smells
like vanilla which is really good
yeah oh so you're definitely gonna try
that out maybe we'll have a video on
brush cleaning so we can show this to
you but i'm really liking this.
Wow now I'm curious. The one thing i don't
like is the pouring it's not a..
there's no spout or anything so sometimes i
do spill a small amount but that's like a
small price. that's true
something about i also want to talk
about it's just like a re-purchase and
because there was the twenty percent off
so i decided to kind of go crazy
these are the shisedo facial cottons and i know you see
this one package here but trust me i bought
like four. yeah I was like...
we go through these quite a bit and they
are great i mean i can even like when I
have leftover sheet mask fluid, i can
actually put this, dip one of these into
the fluid it'll soak up the fluid and I
just I just like gently tear it into
like two separate pieces and then I can just
like use it as a quick sheet mask
I mean it sounds crazy to invest in
designer facial pads. But trust me, these are different.
exactly, these actually are different
i was skeptical because my mom has been
using me since like I can remember as a
little girl. And I used to be like why is this Lady
spending eleven dollars on a bunch of cotton
Like has she gone cuckoo or
like what's happening but now
that I've discovered these, well not discover these
But now that i've actually
given them a try i can kinda see why they're so
expensive I mean you don't i don't see
why they're so expensive but... well sort of
but it's a higher-quality you don't get
much fall out from cotton and you know how
it sometimes when you have like your normal
cotton balls and you have to pick out the
little threads of cotton stuck on. There's
none of this. This is great and it's so gentle
yet it kind of somehow exfoliates, just a tiny
tiny bit. So I'm in love with these
so I've decided to like buy a whole bunch
why not when they're on sale?! Exactly,
like what other chance am I going to get.
So the last one it's not really much of a
skincare again but i just wanted to even
it out because she has a lot of skincare.
It's something I've always been after. And it's the my
burberry signature perfume. At first I
figured maybe I should get the festive
one because it's the time for it but
something about like having sparkles in it...
I feel like it would just clogs the whole
spray by itself. Oh really? well I never
thought of it that way and it also takes
away some product because that's not
perfume. That's true. So I love it
It just comes in um... I'd like to say Ebony,
I don't know what this material is. But I see it often.
Yea it's very nice and sturdy its kind of marble like.
It has Jasmine notes I don't know
what else it smells like iris to me. Well
like a mixture of all, yeah no like
it smells like it's got iris in there.
A very nice, feminine, sexy smell and it lasts a
while. the next day I'll still smell it on
it. That's the thing about a lot of
yeah that's the thing about a lot of designer
perfumes it's they do have
quite a good lasting power usually so I
i can see why people tend to invest a
little bit more in designer perfume. so you're
getting what you pay for
yeah okay last thing we want to talk
about for skincare is this product that
i got a sample of, and I was like I
need to go buy this, I need to go buys this.
This is like fantastic!
oh yeah she's been... but she's been
talking about it for like months and
I was like just go buy it already!
yeah and i was like no, this is so
expensive I'm gonna wait until I get a
discount and I finally did
So this is the Tatcha like polish
classic rice EH! classic rice enzyme
powder and it's great because it
does give you a little bit of a
exfoliant but it's not the type that you
would get wax beads. It doesn't feel like
that at all. It literally just feels like
rice powder that you would basically put
like a teaspoon in your hands add some water
make some bubbles and you'll feel this like
really fine like mist like texture and
then your'll just wash your face and your complexion
it's instantly clearer, its brighter, its
like more smooth and it's more natural i
think as an exfoliant for you skin. For sure.
Although I gotta say I've never had a product
like that where it's a powder form and I
had to like mix it myself. Well i know
I've know about this type of product for
a long time because apparently it's been
very kind of popular in Japan the whole
rice enzyme thing and I've heard about a
lot already, but I've never seen it in a
North American brand yet and if you
watch their like kind of brand story. Isn't it Japanese?
No it's actually like I think
the girl is like the the lady who
created the brand don't quote me on this
She's like from the states and then she had traveled to
Kyoto, Japan where they have a
lot of geishas and I don't if you know about
geishas but they have like a {Coco: flawless}
Flawless, full face of makeup though and
super white. So how they take
care of that is
very very important and apparently rice
enzyme they used rice water like when
you wash your rice and then you cook it
they leave the water and then they use
that water to wash your face. My mom was actually
saying you can wash your face with like
rice water. yeah a lot of people a lot of
old asian people do that
apparently. That's how they maintain your skin
and so she had taken those Japanese
geisha ideas and then she had devolved
into actual recipes for her skincare
line and that's how she came up with
tatcha and so I that's where the Japanese
part comes from but basically open this
yeah so it's in here like this you open it
up. The packaging is so pretty too
yeah they use papyrus on every one of their information
sheets too. Which is expensive by the way.
Because they have to hand make that. it comes
like this and this is the papyrus she's
talking about. And basically it just come in a
package like this. and when you open it
so pretty when you open it, you'll see
that it looks like this. Now it's not that you
twist the lid and there's another like
layer. it's literally you just plop this
part open and use pour a little bit in your
hand and then you add water with that. but
this works so well. So for those of you
have sensitive skin but still want to
exfoliate because you have to. i would
definitely recommend this product
ok so that's it for the skincare
portion of our Sephora haul. And please
watch out for next week when you see our
makeup section our insane makeup
section we're going to have to like buzz through
that like quick
ok so that's it! if you liked our video
please don't forget to give us a big
thumbs up for likes, subscribe to our
channel and check out other videos and
we'll link that down below as well, see you
next week! bye!
-------------------------------------------
Paw Patrol HULK Finger Family Songs - Daddy Finger Family Nursery Rhymes - Panda Kids - Duration: 2:01.
Daddy finger, Daddy finger
Where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
Mommy finger, Mommy finger
Where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
Brother finger, Brother finger
Where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
Sister finger, Sister finger
Where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
Baby finger, Baby finger
Where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
-------------------------------------------
Getting Started with Unit Testing Part 1 - Duration: 28:04.
For more infomation >> Getting Started with Unit Testing Part 1 - Duration: 28:04. -------------------------------------------
December Reading Wrap Up | 2016 - Duration: 12:33.
[Christmas music playing]
Hey guys ! iI's Trina and this is my
December reading wrap up. Before I move
into the books that I read this month I
want to give a couple of quick shoutouts
to some of my fellow booktubers that
have really made 2016 a great year for
me. This year I have really gotten to
know Jenna from jennclarek, Meagan
from Meagan Precourt, and Monica from
tomesproject. All three of them live
somewhat near me and we've been able to
meet up several times this year at a
local bookstore and go to like author
signings. I'm just so thankful for them and
their friendship and for putting up with
me and I really highly recommend
following them because not only do I
love them but I love their channels and platforms.
[ jingle bell sound effect ]
For my TBR check-in this month,
I had wanted to read seven books and I
ended up reading four of those. I got a
really late start on reading because I
was traveling at the very beginning of
December and then right before Christmas
like the only thing I was in the mood
for were christmas-themed books so I
read a couple of those and then when I
was done I was like that's it I'm done
for the year, I don't want to read
anything else! So, you know, I didn't hit
all seven of these but that's okay I
still want to read them at some point.
[ jingle bell sound effect ]
Moving into the book reviews, I did read
a total of seven things this month and
as always I'm going to start at the
bottom and work my way up to my favorite
read of the month. So first up I read
Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty. This is
the fifth and final book in the Jessica
Darling series. This is a book series
that follows one main character, Jessica
Darling, as we read her journal entries
as she is going through her high school,
college, and her adult life.
Book number five here has followed her
into her adult life and it's set about
two or three years after the previous
book and in my opinion I just didn't
really need this book. It definitely felt
like something that was added on as an
afterthought. This book only covered a 24
hour time period so I did feel like
it was quite stretched out. Some parts
really dragged for me. This book also
switched in narration. The previous four
books were all her diary entries and
this one is now just a third-person
narrative. Because of this we got to
follow our other main character in the
series, Marcus, and just his thoughts as
he's alone but I unfortunately felt like
Marcus was acting very out of character.
He seemed like he was acting a lot like
Jessica and now maybe her personality
has rubbed off on him throughout the
years but really I just felt like the
author did not really distinguish these
characters. I ended up rating it only two
stars. I really didn't enjoy it although
I will say I am glad now to be done with
this series. It connected with me in
terms of being nostalgic to my high
school and college experiences but with
me and Jessica both being adults now I
just grew tired of how snarky and
judgmental she was. Now that I have
finished this entire series and having
read another of Megan McCafferty's books -
she has a series called Bumped or
Thumped or something like that.
I never continued in that series because
I felt like it was very judgmental and
that the author was really pushing her
tone and her thoughts on you and now
they have finished this series I feel
like it's the same way so I think it's
safe to say I probably won't read
anything else by this author in the future.
Next up I read The Twelve Days of Dash
and Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.
This one is the sequel to Dash and Lily's Book
of Dares. That first book is another book
that was told in journal format where
these two characters had never met
before but one of them finds the other's
journal and they start writing back and
forth to each other and leaving it in
places where the other will find it. Both
of these books are set during
Christmastime so this one takes place a
year after the first one and the
one character who is like super super
super into Christmas has now lost her
christmas spirit in this one, so it's
kind of the journey about her getting her
Christmas spirit back. Again, I didn't
think this book was necessary. I didn't
really need a continuation of it. tTe first
book is definitely better and I would
honestly recommend treating it as a
standalone. I would say it's a good book
to read around the holidays but honestly
I would just recommend the first book
over this one. The next book I read was
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. This is
the second and final book in the Six of
Crows duology. This series is about a
group of six characters from very
different backgrounds that find
themselves having to work together in
order to stop this drug from spreading
throughout their land that is
threatening to wreak havoc on their
magic system. I love the fantasy world in
this book, how diverse it is, how
diverse the characters are. This book
does have a good representation of race,
sexuality, and disability. The main
character Kaz has a disability that is
very similar to the author's so it is own
voices for disability.
However, I found myself pretty
disappointed in parts with kind of some
jabs that I felt were made at the
expense of mental illness. I felt like
parts of this book in terms of the plot
were dragging for me and so whenever a
book does drag a little bit I will start
to nitpick the smaller things and so
that's the only reason why I think I
noticed this. Although I do enjoy this story
and the characters, I felt like I wasn't
getting to know the characters on a
level that I wanted to.
Furthermore, there were a couple of
things that happened in terms of plot in
this book that came out of absolutely
nowhere and felt very random. It was
so unsatisfying to see random things
being thrown in here because I felt like...
like what-what even was the point?! I do
have a spoiler-free duology review up
and I also have an in-depth spoilery
talk about Crooked Kingdom if you want
to know more of my thoughts on some of
these things that I mentioned if you've
already read it.
Next I read The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale.
This is a retelling of a classic
fairytale also called The Goose Girl.
This is a story about a young princess who
has been betrothed to the prince of a
neighboring kingdom and as she's on her
way traveling to the prince's kingdom to meet him
she's attacked by her lady-in-waiting
who steals her clothes and takes her
place and goes to the other kingdom and
tries to pass herself off as the real princess.
Meanwhile, our main character, the princess,
goes into hiding and she becomes a
keeper of geese. I did listen to this one
on audiobook and that I think is why I
liked this one so much. I did end up
giving this one a four-star rating. It
had a very large cast of characters (voice actors),
it had sound effects and music.
The voice acting was phenomenal. It was a
great experience to listen to because I've
said this before, I really feel like
listening to audiobooks of fairytales
just works perfectly because I grew up
with fairy tales being read to me like at
bedtime so just kind of makes me feel
comforted and entertained so I enjoy
listening to fairy tales. It definitely
worked for me in that format. In terms of
the stor,y what I found as something that
I disliked is that I thought like the
beginning really dragged getting into it
and introducing us to the princess. A lot
of time was spent on building up things
that never really had much meaning in
the end, but the ending of this book
packed a big impact for me. It was extremely
fulfilling. I really liked it.
This is a story where it's like you
really want her to get her revenge on
this awful thing that has happened but
you also really enjoy as a character
that she doesn't like whine and complain
the whole time. She doesn't like lose
sight of things because she just wants
revenge. She actually takes comfort and
finds solace in where she finds herself
and I did really like that about her
character. And the ending was so
fulfilling to me and I was like, 'YES GIRL!'
So I really did enjoy it, that's why it
got a higher rating: the ending and the
fun audiobook. Next I read Leave Me by
Gayle Forman. This is Gayle's first
adult novel. I've read I think all of her
YA novels before so I definitely
wanted to check this one out.
This one is about a woman who is a
mother and she has a full-time job that
she's trying to juggle with her family
life. One day she has a heart attack and
she's supposed to start taking it easy,
be on bed rest to better recuperate, and
she's just finding it hard to recover
from it because of how hectic her
home life is and so one day she just up
and leaves. She's getting to be alone
for one of the first times in many years
and just getting to know herself a
little bit better and starts also
searching for her biological mother. I ended
up actually really enjoying this book. I
found it very easy to get into. I was
almost immediately invested. Like, I don't
have kids, I'm not in the same situation
that Maribeth is but the way that Gayle
portrayed it made me SO angry and
frustrated with her husband, with her
mother. Like the way that they weren't
helping her out, I was like, "girl you
better pack your bags and LEAVE. You need
some rest!" So like, I was kind of rooting for it
and then that made me stop and think,
but she's a mom and you can't just leave
your husband and kids. There was a
section of this book that talks about
characters who like leave their families
and how we can see them as being
redeemed or not usually depends on whose
side of the story that you're following.
So I really feel like this is more of an
exploration of just like how would you
feel if you're following the one that
left? Because usually that's the person
seen as the irresponsible, the bad one
who's hurt their family and stuff, and
it's like well let's follow that
character and see like what they do and
would they be understood? I did not
always agree with the things the
character was doing but it gave me a lot
to think about so I had an enjoyable
time reading it and I think that Gayle
writes adult fiction really well. I think
I actually enjoyed this one better than
I have some of her YA books. Then I
read What Light by Jay Asher. This book was
sent to me by Penguin for review
consideration but that did not influence my
thoughts on this book at all.
This is a book set during Christmastime
and we're following our main character
Sierra who lives in Oregon with her
family who owns a Christmas tree farm
and every winter they move to
California to operate a Christmas tree
lot. This particular year they think
it might be their last year operating
the tree lot because the business isn't
doing that well so when Sierra goes to
California she's got a whole different
set of friends in California and she's
struggling with the idea of maybe having to
say goodbye to them and not seeing them
again next year.
It is a romance, so of course she meets a
boy and this boy is a trope I don't like
but let me tell you about him. He has a
secret in his past that he is still
dealing with the consequences of today.
The guy with the mysterious past is a
trope that I usually do not like but I
actually really liked how it was handled
in this book. Like, as soon as this character is
introduced and you find out what the
rumors about him are I was like oh my
gosh this is gonna be terrible.
I was like on edge. Like, this is not
going to be a good thing. I don't
want this particular thing about him to
be redeemed in the end. And as far as my
feelings on this guy and
his character arc and stuff, I did enjoy
that this book dealt with forgiveness
and character growth and how you can
move past mistakes. Although I do think
that probably more emphasis should have
been placed on mental health and maybe
counseling but counseling was mentioned
in passing in this one and so that ended up
being good enough for me because I know
that this is just fiction and not real
life but I think that if you read this
discerningly that you would be fine with
it. I was pretty irritated for a while
at how these characters did not
confront what this secret was. Like, he
just did not tell her for a while and I
was screaming at these characters to USE
YOUR WORDS! One of the things I hate the
most in romance novels is when the
characters refuse to communicate, but
once these characters did sit down and
talk about it I felt they communicated
very well thereafter. There's actually a
scene where they get into a fight and
they do use their words and they do
actually talk about the issue at hand
and I realized as I read that scene,
wow I needed to read that, because I feel
like in most YA romances when a fight ever
is portrayed usually the characters just
make assumptions about each other, storm
off, and then refuse to talk. I did enjoy
how this one had the characters actually
communicating and also enjoyed how
Sierra communicated with her parents.
The parents were very active in her life
and overall I just really enjoyed this
book. It definitely has a lot of
Christmastime vibes, so I know it's too
late for Christmas this year but if
you're looking for a great Christmas
atmosphere type book to read next year,
definitely I would recommend this one.
The final book I read this month, my
favorite one, was actually a reread and it
was my favorite book last month also [laughs]. It is
Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay
Kristoff. I read this one last month
so you can see my original review of it
in my November wrap up but in December I
actually listened to the audiobook of
this one because the audio books are
just a totally different experience. They
have a large cast of characters (voice actors), a ton of
music, and sound effects. It's a really
great immersive experience. I would
highly recommend both versions of this
book, the print copy and the audiobook,
but if you want to know which one I
recommend over the other I would just
recommend the book. The one thing that
the audiobook really cannot capture are
Hanna's drawings in the actual book so if
you do have a chance to choose between
one or the other, I would definitely
recommend that the print version but
also the audio book is really amazing.
So these are the seven books that
I finished up my year with. I ended up
reading a total of 111 things, although
I think nine of those were novellas. Let me
know what your favorite book of December
was and if you haven't seen it yet I do
have a video up on my favorite books of
the year overall, as well as a video on
my least favorite books of the year.
Thank you guys so much for watching and
I will see you in 2017. Bye!
Uh!
That was a bad one.
[music: jazzy version of We Wish You A Merry Christmas]
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét