Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Read in 2012 (Ten Years Ago!)

"Top Ten Tuesday" is a weekly bookish shareable, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!

Ah, 2012. This time last decade, the harried summers of my high school years had faded out into the languid anticipation of what was sure to be "the best years of my life in college" (Spoiler alert: they weren't, but that's fine). 

I was prepping for Sorority Recruitment at UW, while trying to make the most of the (relative) freedom of summer, while taking care of my three younger siblings, while splitting what remained of my scant attention between miraculously losing five pounds before the next family vacation and figuring out how to reply to peoples' texts on my brand new iPhone fast enough they wouldn't think I was ignoring them (Which is something I still have problems doing. I think of texts like interacting with a lazy breed of carrier pigeons: I see you hanging around on my windowsill, and I'll get to you when I get to you, but it's not going to be until after I figure out what I was already working on when you got here). 

But most importantly, I was reading just a ton of books... far more books than I can manage to read as an adult! Nowadays, my innate urge for constant distraction and escapism is fueled by mindless scrolling and maladaptive daydreaming; back then, I was reliant on the euphoria of YA novels and Fantasy settings that bore no resemblance to my reality whatsoever. And man, did I mow through a lot of them. 

Today's "Top Ten Tuesday" topic is TECHINCALLY "Books Over Ten Years Old," but I wanted to get a little more specific. Let's face it: I was an English major, and I'm a sucker for a beat up thrift store Romance novel, so I've read quite a lot of books that fit that billing. I wanted to get a little more... specific. 

Did I remember any of these titles off of the top of my head? Of course not. Thank God I was keeping a blog a decade ago. (I celebrated my twelfth anniversary back last month!) How else would I remember all of my crazy ramblings of books, some of which I haven't thought about in years?

Here's ten of the most important things I was reading back in 2012:

1. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Was this my first interaction with Austen? No. Not even this book specifically. But we were reading it for my AP English class in my senior year, and I still think back fondly on the experience. Mainly because it's one thing to read P&P on your own, and another to do it with good friends...and because for one shining day in class, Mr. Chandler asked me to read aloud for Elizabeth's part, and wouldn't you know it? It was the First Proposal scene. I've never been a theater kid, but in that moment, I felt like I was performing for millions. Honestly, I don't know if I've ever been happier speaking in public. 

2. The Selection, Kiera Cass

Hands down the harshest critique I've ever written, for a novel that I still, to this day, believe is unquestionably some of the worst YA I've ever read. That all being said... I've read three other books in the series after this one. Not that I'd ever recommend them to anybody else, of course. 

3. A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan

Funny enough, this book has made its way onto this blog not once, but twice: I read it for the first time as an incoming freshman in college, and reread it for the second time as a graduating senior, and took away completely different messages both times. It's a testament to how well-written this postmodernist novel (-slash-short-story-collection) is, that you can come back to it again and again with new eyes. Together with all of the other books in her canon I've read, it's no surprise that she's one of my literary favorites. 

4. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford

This book still gets me at my core: every time I visit Uwajimaya in the International District of Seattle, or walk through the animal barns at the Puyallup fairgrounds, I'm struck with memories of reading this novel, and the Japanese internment in Washington State during WWII. Rereading this review reveals a lot of the naivete I had as a kid... in a lot of ways, I didn't know a ton about the world until I started living on my own, in college. I had a lot of growing up to do. 

5. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain

Fun fact: I read this book for the first time when I was eight. That means that by the time I read it in 2012, I was actually celebrating a decade spent with this book, too! Now, I'm 28, and it feels crazy to say that I've read this book once a year for more than 2/3s of my time spent alive and breathing. And you'll never guess what's one of the books on my TBR before the end of Summer, too. 

6. The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

To be fair, I didn't so much as review this book in my original iteration, as spend a whole lot of paragraphs dunking on the Twilight fan phenomena. (The year was 2012, and I was a bit of a self-important snob, after all. How dare all of these other girls enjoy reading books, which was a thing that only I was allowed to do??) Though I do credit Erin Morgenstern with reinvigorating a dying genre in this review, which I feel like is high praise, for something that barely merited three paragraphs of discussion... and I barely remember. 

7. A whole bunch of books about Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll 

Our high school abided by a research-paper-per-year policy in our English classes, which made for a whole lot of opportunities to do a whole lot of reading on pretty much whatever topic I desired. Senior year it was Alice in Wonderland... more specifically, how Charles Dodgson's real life, work, and personal relationships informed his writing as Lewis Carroll. So, not just the children's book for me, but also several biographies and detailed reflections on his photography habit. What can I say? I'm thorough.

8. The Princess Bride, William Goldman

This longstanding family favorite for viewing, quickly became a personal favorite for reading, when I finished it for the first time in the same week that one of my best friends asked me to Prom. It was also in the heyday of my Daffodil Princess obligations, so you can understand that I had quite a lot to say about Princesses while reading. 

9. A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin

According to the review I wrote at the time, I liked this installment, but its brutality offended my delicate sensibilities. Still not wrong! However, eighteen-year-old Savannah was a huge prude, too, and had a little bit more of a problem with the sexual content than the violence... which made her a huge hypocrite, because while you can hide your FanFiction.Net tabs from the outside world, you can't hide it from yourself! Little did she know that ten years later, she'd have quite a lot of smutty Romance reads under her belt. And that she liked the Game of Thrones TV show, for all of its nudity, too!

10. Anna Godberson's Bright Young Things series 

Good Lord, remember the absolute chokehold the 1920s had on 2012? Lauren Conrad was a major fan of the throwback style, teen magazines insisted on its use as a "classy" costume for any dress-up soiree, and the Baz Luhrmann Great Gatsby movie would arrive the following May. It feels like a ton of my early collegiate life was all wrapped up in Tiffany box blue and F. Scott Fitzgerald references. It's no surprise they had a grip on the YA market, too. 

What's in YOUR Top Ten? And what were YOU doing in 2012? 

Let me know, in the comments below! 

A Dish Best Served Burnt

With the phenomenal success of the Pretty Little Liars series, it's no surprise that more teen dramas set in idyllic, exclusive neighborhoods would creep up. But after watching Aria, Spencer, Hannah, and Emily tracking down the vengeful saboteur in their own lives, it's nice to see some ladies whipping up a cold dish of revenge in their own Home Ec classes. Here comes Burn for Burn, from Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian.

The novel (first in a series, with the sequel, Fire with Fire, having been released earlier this year) follows Lillia, a popular and wealthy high-school student, with ambivalent feelings about the people she associates with; Lillia's childhood best friend, Kat, who resents how quickly she was forgotten, and is willing to send a former friend down in flames for what she's done; and Mary, a former fat kid who's slimmed down, and is prepared to stand up to the boy who made her life hell. Together, these three girls are going to bring down the cool kids... even though a dish best served cold, just might end up burning them back.

I usually hate books with split character narration, because they tend to end up being ineffectual at drawing differences in the personality and tone of the individual narrator's style, and simply use a quick character-shift to utilize blank narrative space for a cover for further drama (Yes, I realize that this can come off as a generalization, but this is something I'm serious about!). However, that was not the case in Burn for Burn: Lillia, Mary, and Kat all had their specific voices in the telling of the story, as well as additional insight into the interactions and motivations of the other characters. 

It wasn't just that the three main characters were compelling and interesting, either: each of the foundational characters were important as well, particularly through the gradual revelation of each's back story, which was incredibly effective. The community of people who built up Jar Island were fresh and interesting, even with their flaws.I need to make a distinct delineation, however: some of these characters, especially the periphery of the action present in the story, were still stock. Even some of the key antagonists came off as stock. They just were presented so in a new way, and their respective background stories brought additional depth, making them all that more compelling.

My absolute favorite character trait was the glimpses of paranormal ability in one of the main three girls. This is how paranormal fiction should work, with an ultra-suspenseful build-up, bits and pieces gradually displayed over a long period of time, with drama taking the front seat to any powers themselves (paranormal abilities are usually the result of additional emotional baggage, anyways; doesn't it make more sense that they are the more important of the two?).

The drama and suspense came on strong in this piece of YA. I'd even hazard a boast that I like it more than the Pretty Little Liars series, simply because of it's efficient strategies of revealing both back story and current plot development to build simultaneous tension, its engaging characters and believable-yet-mildly-utopian setting, and its general flawless execution of writing style. I just haven't seen much YA written this well before, especially with elements of paranormal fiction thrown in.

And to be honest, that cover is just one million kinds of gorgeous.

For YA fans interested in a new take on old genres, with unexpected twists, a lot of heart, and plenty of high school intrigue, this is a great note to start the school year on!

Going Sometime

Something wonderful has happened to me recently: with the return of the freedom of summer and comfort of home, I now am able to do things like A. exploit the control of the flat screen in the family room at the expense of my family members,  B. eat/make/bake/cook/consume/etc. as much food as I want at any time I want for any reason I want, and C. utilize the public resource of the local library just around the corner.

On my very first visit there since sojourning to Seattle for the school year, I combed the YA shelves for new releases that I had missed in my absence (because a college student just doesn't read YA books in college, regardless of how brain-meltingly saccharine or comfortingly low-comprehension they are). While picking through the stacks, I found Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt, which had been making the rounds on some of my favorite book blogs back in March, and I decided to give it a shot. It was packed along with four other books into my library bag, and checked out. (New Haul!)

This novel - which could be renamed Teenage First World Problems in Three Acts - tells the story of a high school kid named Mallory, who discovers that her real-life boyfriend has been cheating on her with a cyber-life wife named BubbleYum on a "Second Life" -esque computer game. In an attempt to release the toxicity of the affair from her system, she purges not only the offending culprit, but all means for such dishonesty - including computers and cell phones - and, inspired by a list of goals from her grandmother's junior year of high school, leads her life by a technological code of ethics that successfully plunges herself back into 1962. During this wild experiment, she must complete tasks written on the list, along with the help of her sister - sew her own homecoming dress, and become secretary of Pep Club at her school, for instance - but the goals she sets to accomplish take her far beyond what she dreamed possible.

Overall, I thought this novel - though with a unique and interesting story line - was pretty true to genre. Quirky and unique female in "distress" (the real-world affect of which isn't so distressing) and offending hunky male, contrivance of strange and ineffective scheme to set everything right, nothing works out the way she planned, bada bing, bada boom, end of story. It was an episode of That's So Raven or Hannah Montana; it was a twee, hyper-snarky Zooey Deschanel short story, written in her younger years. It wasn't boring by any means, just predictable, even down to the voice of the character, and honestly, that's what I've come to expect from most girly Young Adult Romances.

However, that isn't to say that it was strictly a Romance, either. It had all the trappings of a typical one, but instead of going full throttle and charging straight into a relationship with another character, Mallory was given the gift of time and patience and the ability to heal from her wounds, first. She really does grow from the problems that hurt her so badly in the beginning of the novel, which, without stepping into the realm of the moralistic, certainly allows for a lesson to be learned in young readers.

That, as I came to realize after reviewing the book carefully, was the general audience of the novel: young readers. Though the novel itself is written from the point of view of someone entering their junior year of high school, the book is tame enough to enter into territory of "sedate" for anyone around that age, but is perfect for those around 12-15, who have no real knowledge of how such things like high school work. Anyone older would get as bored as I did, and anyone younger wouldn't have any idea of how things were like in the 1960s, so hitting between is really the sweet spot.

Going Vintage was a sometimes over-dramaticized, sometimes over-complicated-yet-under-comprehensive, and always fluffy and sweet young adult novel, written for the younger end of the spectrum.

This is Not the End.

Well, here we are, so many years later. I'm graduating from high school tomorrow. Unlike other awards or honors you can receive, where you say things like, "I was never expecting this" or "I've worked really hard for this" or even something like "I don't deserve this," completing your education through high school and earning your diploma shouldn't be like that. You should expect it, it should be obvious as to whether you've worked hard for it, and you should definitely not be getting one if you don't deserve it. The only phrase that should be used in both scenarios is this one: "Thank you".

Thank you to my family, for working hard to support me throughout my life, and for staying out of my room and my way when I said that I had serious work to do. Thank you to my friends, for giving me great advice and homework help, someone to talk to, and somewhere to sit. Thank you to my peers, those people who I walked beside every day, and whose close proximity and friendly smiles always made me feel a little less alone. Most importantly, thank you to my teachers, especially those whose work has impacted not only the work I do, but also my decisions, and therefore, my life.

During this reflective time, I've been thinking a lot about how where I've been has affected where I'm going. English teachers, of course, come to mind immediately (and librarians, but that's a little different). And in reflecting on them - the good and the great, the shallow and deep - I've reflected on the works we read WITH them. This has made me realize and understand exactly how long this journey - my high school experience - has taken.

FRESHMAN YEAR- Ms. O. and Mrs. B.

Best: The Odyssey, Ender's Game

Worst: The Secret Life of Bees, Romeo and Juliet

 While The Odyssey was (an) epic, Romeo and Juliet were barely tolerable, or even old enough to be dating in the first place. The Secret Life of Bees was unbearable (one memorable classmate skipped reading all together, and simply saw the movie). Ender's Game was the best, by far, and worth rereading; besides, it helped me find one of my favorite book sub-genres (Sci-Fi Warfare: like Dune, Ender's Game, or soon-to-be-read World War Z).

SOPHOMORE YEAR - Mrs. C.

Best: To Kill a Mockingbird, Jane Eyre

Worst: Fahrenheit 451, Julius Caesar

 The worst possible thing to do to a biblio-freak like me, is to give them a book about destroying books. Now when I read, the terrible notion that all the books in the world may one day be burned, and that I should memorize the one I'm reading to preserve it for the future, has always hung over my head when I am exploring a particularly good book (The Last Book in the Universe had a similar effect). Also, Julius Caesar pales in comparison to a play like Hamlet, which we read this year. Jane Eyre, however, is a book that I not only treasure, but my sister does as well, and To Kill a Mockingbird was a moving portrait of childhood and of injustice, with a strong Southern twang.

JUNIOR YEAR - Ms. W

Best: The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter

Worst: Macbeth, The Grapes of Wrath

First rate teacher - the best I've ever had in this subject, actually. Gatsby introduced me to the fanciful world and frenetic energy of Fitzgerald, while the Grapes of Wrath simply was as dry as the dust the Joad family was trying to get away from. Macbeth was meh, and I'm not going to bother pretending that my enjoyment of The Scarlet Letter wasn't amplified thanks to the movie Easy A.

SENIOR YEAR - Mr. C

This year. My last. One of the best classes I've ever been a student in. And while I should probably have been including the books I read in class with the ones I was counting on my blog, I forgot. Remedying it now:

Best: Hamlet (#31), Pride and Prejudice (#32), Antigone (#33), Oedipus Rex (#34), Heart of Darkness (#35)

Worst:, Their Eyes Were Watching God (#36), The Things They Carried (I actually did remember to blog about this one, but not for a happy reason...)

Hamlet was not so great at decision making, but Antigone and Oedipus Rex didn't exactly succeed as monarchs either. I fell in love with Pride and Prejudice all over again during class discussions, and Heart of Darkness was used as partial inspiration for the Jungle Cruise in Disneyland, so it's all right with me. :)

Anyways, that's my past for years in public school-mandated reading material. I really do recognize the fact that I've come along way, thanks in no small part to the triumph of my teachers. However, I know that I won't ever stop reading or writing, and that their lessons will endure. They laid the groundwork of my education, and provided me with various lenses through which I can view the world around me and the world on the page. 

The end of my high school career by no means marks the end of my education (besides the obvious fact that I'm going to college, and later, graduate school). Literature has always been a part of my life, and it's because my teachers helped instill in me a love of reading that will never fail me. The end of high school is not the end for me... simply because I know that the lessons of my teachers will still be guiding and teaching me throughout my life. 

Thank you, teachers!

Writing Wonderland

So, as we (rapidly) approached the end of the year, our AP English teacher gave us the yearly research paper assignment mandated by our school board, with an exciting topic pool: literature analysis, from whatever direction you'd like to go at it. Also, instead of last year's cap of 6 pages, we would now be expected to fill 6-10 pages.

The first emotion I was struck by, was frustration. Last year, my rough draft for my paper was twelve pages long, on a topic that I REALLY cared about: Nancy Drew (and her Effects on Female Empowerment in the 1930s). That would have been perfect, and I would even have had the opportunity to dive deeper into my favorite intrepid teenage sleuth's history. While some of my friends who were more sick with senioritis urged me simply to resubmit my paper from last year, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to complete an English paper: there my # 1 fave English assignment, and what I'm best at. Researching and synthesizing information into a coherent, comprehensive format that other people can easily understand and enjoy is one of my fortes, and is actually what I want to be able to do professionally (writing non-fiction books is just as cool as the made-up stuff :) ). So, I brainstormed ideas.

One of my good friends, one who knows my Disney obsession, offered the suggestion of writing about how classic stories are adapted into Disney movies; however, seeing as though that topic encompasses so many different books, I had to narrow it down further. And then further. Eventually, I reached down into my love of British children's lit, and pulled out Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. Seeing as though I though I felt there was more to go into with Alice, I closed the topic down to how Wonderland's storyline, characters and writing style was affected by the actual life of its author, Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll was his pen name).

In exploring this topic, I was lucky enough to read five different books, in addition to the original works of Alice in Wonderland, and its counterpart, Through the Looking Glass. However, some of these books were more helpful than others, and some I wasn't even able to read all the way through. I got a 197 out of 200 on the final paper, so I guess I was able to synthesize what sources I could well! Here's my opinion of the books I read:

1. The Alice Behind Wonderland, by Simon Winchester. (#28)
This study of Dodgson's life focused on one specific aspect of his personality: his affinity for photography, and his love of making portraits, often of children. While it was generally readable, some of it was a little dry and too fact-laden, and overall, it was really short (I read it in the space of my brother's Little League practice).

2. The Mystery of Lewis Carroll, by Jenny Woolf. (#29)
Probably my favorite of all six, this strictly biographical novel also takes into consideration setting straight the various rumors about Dodgson that have circulated in his histories. Well-written and highly entertaining in style, Woolf is also a little opinionated about her own theories on Charles' mysterious personal life, which means that for a a well-rounded essay, I had to explore other takes on a very private man's hidden vices.

3. Lewis Carroll: A Biography, by Morton Norton Cohen.  (#30)
This book is very large, and reasonably daunting, but don't let it overwhelm you. The size is directly related to the amount of knowledge contained in it, as well as the strength of the opinions voiced. This book featured some of the most beautiful writing, style-wise, out of all of the books, and was the one where I found the most quotes for use in my essay.

4. Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy: Curiouser and Curiouser, a collection of essays.
The subjects of the essays within this book are unique - like whether Alice is a feminist icon - and vary quite a bit, which means that, unfortunately, I wasn't able to really use this book in my paper. However, I have at least three friends lined up to borrow it this summer, so it's not as if it's bad or uninteresting or anything. :) Out of all of the books I read, this elicited the most covetous looks from my peers.

5. Aspects of Alice: Lewis Carroll's Dream Child as Seen Through the Critics' Looking Glass, with Robert Philips as editor.
Another book I wasn't fully able to use, due to it's large expanse of subject matter, as well as it's slightly outdated nature (it was written in the 1970s). However, most of it looks interesting, and it will be something bearing a little looking into this summer. 

All in all, it was fascinating to dive deeper into the personal history of such an amazing man, as well as how it impacted his work. As it turns out, the third most published book in the whole world, is really full of inside jokes, winks, and nods at his friends... especially one certain little girl, whom he wrote the book for in the first place: Alice Pleasance Liddell. In fact, in the course of my studies, I learned that this July 4th, marks the 150th Anniversary of the first telling of Alice in Wonderland, told off the top of Charles' head, on a golden afternoon's outing with Alice and her sisters along a gentle river. I will certainly be celebrating. :)

Princess For a Day

Every girl should feel like a princess at least once in her life. For most of my childhood, I felt like a toad.
However, in middle school, I met people who not only accepted me, but made me feel royal, and now, so many years later, when I'll soon be graduating from high school with those same people, I can't help but feel how lucky I am. A perfect example of this friendship, and its importance to me, is displayed within the preparation for a recent major event in my life: Senior Prom.

Background info: Belle is my favorite princess, possibly ever. It's even on the back of my Daffodil trading card. And yet, it still amazes me when people remember this fact. So when I walked into AP English first thing in the morning about three weeks ago, and all of the lights were off, save for one illuminating a single red rose, suspended within a glass bell jar on my desk, I got excited. When the note next to the display read "Tale as Old as Time, Song as Old as Rhyme, Turn Around and Answer my Question Before the Last Petal Falls..." it got pretty hard to contain the massive smile on my face. And when I DID turn around, and one of my best friends (who is also my official Daffodil escort) was standing there with a bouquet of flowers, and a sign painted to look like a stained glass window that read, "Savvy, Prom?" I pretty much almost started crying. Because it is one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me, and it did make me feel like a princess, and for that day, I got to be one of those girls who walked around the school with a bouquet of flowers that everyone else smiled at. It was completely unexpected and sweet, and showed a genuine care for things that he knew I'd love.

And it was the perfect way to ask a classic romantic like me to Prom. If you look at my bookcase, there's more than a shelf or two reserved for timeless love stories like Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre, and it isn't hard to find that many instances of fairy tales either: The Once Upon a Time YA multi-author series, as well as Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and a hardbound copy of Hans Christian Anderson's tales, can all be found within the cramped space of my book collection (speaking of fairy tales, look out for a forth-coming post about my topic for this year's research essay!).

Anyways, after the sheer wonderfull-ness of the Prom-posal, I felt the need to return to reading this kind of light-hearted fantasy fare... however, with the sun beginning to shine it's face more and more everyday, I wasn't content to simply read your run-of-the-mill romance. I needed action, and adventure. So, I looked around my room, and pulled out William Goldman's The Princess Bride, which I found to be the perfect - wait for it - "mawwaige" of the adventure and fantasy genres. :) 

And it really is. This classic fantasy tale, published in 1973 and made iconic by the 1987 movie (starring Carey Elwes, Robin Wright, and a swashbuckling Mandy Patinkin, to name a few) follows one of the greatest love stories ever written, through such hazardous terrains as the Cliffs of Insanity, the Fire Swamp, and the Zoo of Death, with monstorous creatures like Rodents of Unusual Size, and even more monstrous villains,  like the scheming Sicilian, and the sinister Six-Fingered Man.

Plot-wise, it's reasonably linear - with some slight chronological variance when you reach the climax of the story, you'll see what I mean - and should therefore be easy to follow; however, as in the movie, where the book is read by the grandfather to his sick grandson, the novel is only the "abridged" version, altered from the "original" author - S. Morgenstern - 's by a later storyteller: Goldman. However, in an effort to keep the movie from becoming almost entirely incomprehensible, they left out all of the bits that Goldman, even in his "abridging," had kept in; namely, confusing and silly attempts to set a discernable time period during which the story may occur - like, after hairdressers, and after America, but before Europe, and whatnot. Some of this long-windiness was thoughtful and inventive, and humorously helped explain the background to the story (for instance, the history of the feud between warring countries Guilder and Florin). However, some of it was a little to lengthy for my tastes, and occasionally too dry to swallow good-naturedly.  For the most part, it kept the action at a pretty fast pace, but those few spots where the back story started upstaging the real plot, were a little chaotic.

But that, my friends, was pretty much my only criticism. The small fraction of the story I have a problem with by no means detracts from the work as a whole, and in fact, the book is one of my favorites. Like the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series back in middle school, this novel is openly traded and discussed among my friends, in the hopes that we can all share in it and its story. Because this book is one of the few that holds the trans formative powers that bend space and time, placing you directly in the world of the novel and within arm's reach of the characters.

And as it is a love story - and as I said in the opening of this blog post - because I am one of those that feel every girl should feel like a Princess. <3

#25. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman

AP Testing: A Half-Hearted Retrospective, aka, Confessions of a Study-Plan Hypocrite

Sweet, glorious freedom was once again mine at 11:35 am this morning, as I closed the AP English Literature and Composition testing booklet, and headed outside with my friends, into the sunshine. Well, not exactly the sunshine: the weather around here's as ready for summer as we are, but still seems to be subjected to some kind of regulation, like we are, so it's stuck in springtime mode (like we are). Anyways, the last AP test of my high school career was today. Now I'm all done. And as I data-wiped months worth of now-useless information from my brain (jk, there was nothing there in the first place :) ) I realized that I could actually read books again! Hooray!

Wait a second, I thought to myself. That sounds familiar.

It was definitely what I talked about in my post-AP test blog post, just last year. (read it here )

After the fact, I realize I messed up a little when it came to AP Prep... but not taking my own advice is probably the most embarrassing mistake. However, I am another year older and another year wiser, and I can definitely tell you that there are quite a few more things that I would have done differently. Which means it's time for my AP Advice, Part Two! (Feel free to participate as is applying to your level of apathy and actual free time. )

1. Read. Read like the Wind! aka, How Your Learning Style Affects Your Score.
I learn best when reading. That's why I got such great scores on my AP US History and AP English last year: I could get by on reading the material and the study guides, studying review sheets, and hand-writing a lot of notes. However, numbers, and how to interpret them, has never been my strong suit, which is why, when it came time to study AP Calc and AP Chem, I was thoroughly overwhelmed. Both of my teachers in those sections operate using a lecture-type method, with minimal handouts or take-home notes. I realized that if I had started taking notes from my study guide alongside the lessons we learned in class, it would have been easier to review the material. Woops. Moral: Study the way you can best benefit from it.

2. Google Counts as a Bosom Friend, aka, Utilize and Be Familiar With All Possible Resources.
There's your textbook, duh. Your class notes. Any other study notes or handouts you get during class.  Study guides available at the library, bookstore, and often, with your teacher. Online databases. Additional notes you can take outside of class. And let's not forget that all of the past free-response questions are available online, too. You just have to take the initiative to explore every possible avenue of prep.

3. Robots Would Be Happy, If They Could, aka, When It's Okay to Stop Caring About Anything but ABC Family Original Movies and Not Studying for AP Calc
There's a point when, if you continue to study, you simply have no room in your brain. Try any harder, and you may start forgetting things, like your address or middle name. This is when you just need to step back, take a breather, and watch mind-numbingly bad TV to make the headache go away. My recommendations? SyFy's Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files, or anything on The CW.

Learn from me!