Petite La Fleur

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh My Rating: 5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: A mesmerizing, moving, and elegantly written debut novel, The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past. The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating grief, mistrust, and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. Now eighteen and emancipated from the system, Victoria has nowhere to go and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. Soon a local florist discovers her talents, and Victoria realiz...

Thoughts on the novel thus far: While I have read the novel before, I find myself having new perspectives of each character; to include Elizabeth having more bark this read around, as well as Mrs. Bennet being far more embarrasing and single minded than previously. Similarly, I find Mr. Darcy to be just as charming and Mr. Bennet just as witty as before. The quick wit and humor of all the characters is just as brilliant and entertaining as ever. Chapter 17 Is this declaration that "there was truth in his looks," based on reason or feeling? I believe the declaration that Elizabeth makes about Mr. Wickham speaking of Mr. Darcy, “there was truth in his looks” is purely based on feeling primarily because Elizabeth already ahs preconcieved notions of who Mr. Darcy supposeably is. However, feelings are beginning to blossom within Elizabeth and Darcy towards each other, thus, I believe that Elizabeth is trying to find a reason not to like him; ironically, all th...

  The popular television series Supernatural and Charmed are both delving into the worlds of demons, angels, and all other supernatural occurrences while being juxtaposed to the ordinary lifestyle most humans lead. Charmed includes three witch sisters responsible for taking care of vanquishing and warding off evil while Supernatural includes two hunter brothers following the path of evil to destroy every evil creature they can. Although both tv shows have very different plot lines, the dynamics and most themes are very much the same. Dealing with evil while trying to lead somewhat normal lives, Prue, Phoebe and Piper, have very much of the same complicated sibling dynamic as Sam and Dean. While the differences are indeed significant, the similarities are rather shocking as well. For starters, both sets of siblings lost their mothers at significantly young ages to evil creatures that both are trying to find and destroy. While the sisters of Charmed lost their mother to a ...

The opening night of The Taming of The Shrew on April 6, 2016 at the Roxy Theatre, was a play I will never forget. The leads playing Petruchio and Katherina, Jonathan Whitney and Margaret Eilertson, were phenomenal at portraying character transformation as well as creating depth to the characters beyond an act. However, the rest of the cast was equally brilliant in the portrayal of their roles and emphasizing Shakespeare’s wit and humor with every delivery of every line. The set remained a simple backdrop of columns to resemble the home of Baptista and his daughters, Katherina and Bianca; whereas when the travels of Katherina and Petruchio occurred, there was a fabric backdrop of various places and landmarks. While the theme of the play was obviously rather crude in that a man should have the capability to “tame” his woman/wife, the humor and mocking of this social mentality was the message depicted through Shakespeare’s words and the actor’s portrayal.  An overall wonderful...

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys My Rating: 4.6 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary:  Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions. Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously--and at great risk--documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love...

Personal Logo Process Due to the wonderful website, http://www.logomakr.com , I was able to create my personal logo with free graphics and color without any issues. Although I have had a personal blog for over a year now, I had never thought of creating a personal logo to affiliate to my blog; then again, I was only fifteen years old when I started it. Therefore, I wanted the logo to be personal and depict not only myself but the overall concept of my blog. Having to spend only about an hour on this project, I was able to create a picture of a girl with glasses, reading a book at a desk with a cup of coffee in the corner and my blog website run across the bottom; it was perfect because the girl looked identical to me and the theme of my blog is written works or book reviews, as well as including a “coffee chat” type idea. The experience was not only simple but fun and I know I will enjoy future creations of logos in case I am needing to change mine or use it for another class. ...

Brooklyn  by Colm Tolbin My Rating: 3.9 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary:  Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the hard years following World War Two. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America, she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind. Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, who loves the Dodgers and his big Italian family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future. First, I must admit this is the first  immigration  story I have read, I believe the (if not one of the) first post-World War II  novels  I have read, and the first Irish character I have ever read about.  Thus, this was an overall new experience for me. Of course I am  accustomed  to World War II novels as well...

Cresta McGowan, while being an English high school teacher, is also a literary review blogger and writer. Writing opinions about Young Adult novels to Classic Literature, she varies in her reading habits, hence, giving well rounded reviews. Although she has given up blogging at the moment, due to lack of time, the posts throughout the past six years have developed a well read blog. Most posts are at minimum a paragraph or two per book review, while some run much longer. The variation in genres is a refreshing and interesting aspect of McGowan’s blog, appealing to several audiences. Thus, while McGowan holds various opinions on books regarding liking or disliking them, she also gives consistent information throughout her reviews. For example, she has a series throughout her blog called “Back on the Shelf”, and reviews several books she has read or is currently reading. Similarly, she reviews books individually to include stand alones as well as those within a series. Two reviews I...

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Katherine V thought boys were gross Katherine X just wanted to be friends Katherine XVIII dumped him in an e-mail K-19 broke his heart When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun--but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl. Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously la...