3/31/2017 Paradise Garden Buffet, 3545 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109, USA
Jill Scott // Las Vegas 8.27.15
its not even funny how late i am with these pictures.
i meant to post them a looooong time ago.
like when i went to go see her, long ago; back in August 2015.
but for some reason i never did.
and then when i was finally going to, i didn't.
BUT NOW I AM BECAUSE I GOT TICKETS TO SEE JILL SCOTT AGAIN AND I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED!!!!
sorry for yelling!
but, so yea.
i thought it was time that these were
i know they're of the crappy quality but i was tooo busy singing my heart out to stand there and take good pictures.
i think the most favorite part of this concert for me (besides you know, finally seeing her!) was the fact that a man next to me saw me singing my heart out and he turned to me and said "you sing it sista." ahhh!!!! (you have no idea how much that meant to me.)
anyway, i cant wait to see her!
im currently listing to her on Spotify and ill probably listen to her repeatedly (even more so) from here on out til the day of! eeek!!!
hope you have a great weekend. (:
thanks for reading!
3/30/2017 1111 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90015, USA
currently listening to: red hot chili peppers
a couple of days ago, i was looking through my blog looking for stuff to link up and i realized that i stopped blogging "life" stuff and i miss it!!! (i mean, i knew i had stopped obviously, i just hadn't realized how much i missed it.)
i miss blogging about dumb, random stuff that i later regret having posted.
bahaha
i haven't done a currently listening to in a loong time.
a year+ to be exact. eeek
i think it's because maybe i made baby jesus a promise to not hit up ANY concerts in 2016 so long as he let me see Jill Scott live once!
he kept his part of the deal so i HAD to keep mine.
case in point: i bought tickets to see the neighbourhood solo on superbowl Sunday last year and guess who got siiiiick!!?? (read that in a sing song-y voice.)
so i didn't really even bother trying for the rest of 2016.
:( missed some good ones too.
but he didn't say no to me buying tickets for shows in 2017!
so i was able to score tickets to see THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS!!!!!
this was my third time watching them and by far THE BEST SHOW EVER!!!
my first time was at the fonda, super small venue and i was actually right up front. not bad.
my second time was at Coachella, we made it all the way to the front but i wasn't down with being suffocated so we moved it to the back.
and this time!
this time it was at the staples center.
we weren't that close but it was still pretty good and the show was EFFIN AMAZING!!!!
their light show was amaziiing.
just, everything about that night!
basically, everyone was stoned by the end of the night. if you weren't smoking it yourself, then you were definitely contact high.
everyone was in a giant cloud by the end of the show.
it was pretty dope that they dedicated this show to women since it was woman's day (March 8th, 2017).
the setlist was great!
everything was great!!!
i loved this night so hard!!!!
i was up singing and dancing the whole entire night and i just loved it all!!!
my absolute favorite song of their new album is by far Encore.
that song is everything.
(but go listen to the cd in general...pretty good. i just rediscovered the i'm with you album and hooked on that right now.)
...then that Friday, we had another concert to go to. i was lucky to score tickets from a friends sister and we saw Cafe Tacvba after i wasnt able to get tickets when they went on sale. LOVE those guys.
for now, we only have another one this year; JACK JOHNSON!!!!!
but I'm aiming to HOPEFULLY score tickets to another Jill Scott show.
except I'm not making any promises to baby jesus this time around because I've missed concerts so, we'll see.
I'm also trying to convince him to go with me to see John Mayer...and Bruno Mars (ridiculously good show) but we'll see. I'm okay skipping those two for Jill Scott.
dammit.
made a promise. sorta.
(and as i was about to publish this, Corinne Bailey Rae announces her tour. GIMMIE A BREAK!!!! ...or the winning lotto numbers so i can afford all this!)
anyway, super random post.
(hopefully they'll stick around!)
thanks for reading!
pages: 345
isbn: 978-0-553-49700-7
read: 3/26-28/2017
rating: 1// didn't like it 2// it was okay 3// i liked it
4// i really liked it 5// it was awesome 6// I loved it
Denton Little lives in a world exactly like our own except that everyone knows the day on which they will die. The good news: Denton has lived through his deathdate. Yay! The bad news: He’s being chased by the DIA (Death Investigation Agency), he can never see his family again, and he may now die anytime. Huh. Cheating death isn’t quite as awesome as Denton would have thought. . . .
Lance Rubin’s debut novel, Denton Little’s Deathdate, showed readers just how funny and poignant imminent death could be. Now in this sequel, he takes on the big questions about life. How do we cope, knowing we could die at any time? Would you save someone from dying even if they were a horrible person? Is it wrong to kiss the girl your best friend is crushing on if she’s really into you instead? What if she’s wearing bacon lip gloss?
Lance Rubin’s debut novel, Denton Little’s Deathdate, showed readers just how funny and poignant imminent death could be. Now in this sequel, he takes on the big questions about life. How do we cope, knowing we could die at any time? Would you save someone from dying even if they were a horrible person? Is it wrong to kiss the girl your best friend is crushing on if she’s really into you instead? What if she’s wearing bacon lip gloss?
Ahhh!!!!
I think it's safe to say that this is the last book in this story (buuut if there were to be a third, i'd gladly read it).
I loved it!!!!
I still love the first book a lot more, but this was one was also funny, it answered some stuff but I feel like it also left a couple of blanks.
I don't want to spoil this one for you (at least not in this part) so I won't say too much about it on here but here are a few things.
....
I HATED DRM. Maybe hate is a strong word but I wasn't a huge fan of DRM. Maybe because DRM was a little self centered-ish and DRM's reasoning for Denton was a liiitle bit (a lot of bit) of a dick move.
(I don't want to tell you who or even mention the sex of DRM which is why i keep typing it out...but i know its annoying you)
Also DRM's story line ended kinda like wtf??? But whatever.
I loved the conclusion Denton came to when it came to DRM. And I'm glad that he had his head on straight. Like nothing can replace what he knows but he knows what it meant to know DRM.
That little plot twist with his dad, I didn't see it coming. I did skip around (like an idiot) and so I found out sooner than I should've and I wasn't as shocked but had i not been nosy i would be definitely been shocked.
His dad is a hella smart man.
I still love Denton & Paolo's friendship and I'm not going to lie, I kinda want my own Paolo. I love how they truly care about another and I'm honestly glad this is from a guys point of view vs a girls point of view. I think I've read too much YA involving girls (and honestly, you know that brings dumb boy drama) that I get so happy when I find books that involve guys and dumb ass stuff (not that fighting the death date movement is dumb, but you get what I mean.)
I gotta admit, I think it's a little creepy, to me, the idea of knowing when you're going to die.
Like I'm kinda glad that I don't know, you know.
It's kinda scary NOT knowing but at the same time, i think it's great that you don't know.
A lot of people in the book were living with this idea that they either had to fit x amount of everything into their lives in order to have fully lived or that it didn't matter because the end was near anyway. It was really stressful to a lot of people.
(But then Brian & Denton's dad mention how the of stopping this movement messed up DRM and it's just, woah. Everything has an effect.) (Sorry if I'm making absolutely no sense.)
I also liked that Lance made show of how the government runs off dirty money and how rules only apply to "basic humans" but not them.
Way to stick it to the man, man.
Overall in the end, it was a good conclusion to this story.
It started out (from the first book) as a "woah, what if this really were to happen" dilemma and it ended in a "bah!, sorta sweet, suck it man!, kinda story."
I guess what I'm trying to say is Denton and everyone involved would've been dead a long time ago had this been written by someone else or if it were real life cause you know the government doesn't fuck around.
Good read, good read.
I'll leave you with some fave but not a whole lot cause some might spoil stuff.
"I mean, in a way, entering the world is kind of like a night of spectacular drunkenness."
-Denton pg 1
"After all, it's only our failures that give true meaning to our successes.
Don't you think?"
-Paolo pg 173
"I ate somebody's mail."
-Denton pg 243
(I laughed so freaking hard at this and I don't even know why. It's just, who says that!? Lol)
spoilers below.
thanks for reading
published: 2015
pages: 342
isbn: 978-0-553-49696-3
read: 3/21-24/2017
rating: 1// didn't like it 2// it was okay 3// i liked it
4// i really liked it 5// it was amazing 6// I LOVED IT
Denton Little’s Deathdate takes place in a world exactly like our own except that everyone knows the day on which they will die. For Denton, that’s in just two days—the day of his senior prom.
Despite his early deathdate, Denton has always wanted to live a normal life, but his final days are filled with dramatic firsts. First hangover. First sex. First love triangle—as the first sex seems to have happened not with his adoring girlfriend, but with his best friend’s hostile sister. (Though he’s not totally sure—see, first hangover.) His anxiety builds when he discovers a strange purple rash making its way up his body. Is this what will kill him? And then a strange man shows up at his funeral, claiming to have known Denton’s long-deceased mother, and warning him to beware of suspicious government characters. . . . Suddenly Denton’s life is filled with mysterious questions and precious little time to find the answers.
Despite his early deathdate, Denton has always wanted to live a normal life, but his final days are filled with dramatic firsts. First hangover. First sex. First love triangle—as the first sex seems to have happened not with his adoring girlfriend, but with his best friend’s hostile sister. (Though he’s not totally sure—see, first hangover.) His anxiety builds when he discovers a strange purple rash making its way up his body. Is this what will kill him? And then a strange man shows up at his funeral, claiming to have known Denton’s long-deceased mother, and warning him to beware of suspicious government characters. . . . Suddenly Denton’s life is filled with mysterious questions and precious little time to find the answers.
MY THOUGHTS
GUYS!!!!!!
this book!!!!
this book!!!!
if you've followed my blog a bit, then you know this is my second time reading this book and I STILL LOVE IT!!! (original post here)
i decided to re-read it because the second book FINALLY came out and i wanted to know what i was jumping back into (cause i have horrible memory) and it did not disappoint. i was hooked once again and i found myself laughing hard a lot of the time like i remember doing the first time.
this book is everything!
i love Denton and Paolo and their friendship and their adventures and just everyone! and Millie!!! and Felix!!! and the stoner dude Willis Ellis!
just, i cant tell you how much love this book!
i wont over do it on this post, you can go read the "original" post if ya like so ill just jump to the spoilers.
but first I'll leave you with some of my faves!
(and wow! what a difference my blogging books ways have changed since 2015)
"im 96% sure he's joking. "that's lame. i feel like law school should be more supportive of your right to discuss menswear with your step mom." - Denton
"i know right?" - Felix pg 14
"I guess even as you approach then end of your life, your family can still annoy the crap out of you." -Denton pg 16
"I guess in our family "you're gonna die young" goes first over "that's not your actual mom."
-Denton pg 18
"no. technically it says 'watch oot,' a nine word message, and this person couldn't be bothered to spell-check. i love that."
-Felix pg 34
"Even being real has its limits."
-Denton pg 234
"days are more fun when any day could be the one you die."
-Millie pg 278
there's a whole lot more but I'm not trying to type the book on here word by word.
jump on over for spoilers.
thanks for reading
pages: 259
ISBN: 978-0-316-40343-6
read: 3/14-20/2017
rating: 1// i didn't like it 2// it was okay 3// i liked it
4//i really liked it 5// it was amazing 6// i loved it
"Smell the soup, cool the soup."
-Timby pg 48
SYNOPSIS
Eleanor knows she's a mess. But today, she will tackle the little things. She will shower and get dressed. She will have her poetry and yoga lessons after dropping off her son, Timby. She won't swear. She will initiate sex with her husband, Joe. But before she can put her modest plan into action-life happens. Today, it turns out, is the day Timby has decided to fake sick to weasel his way into his mother's company. It's also the day Joe has chosen to tell his office-but not Eleanor-that he's on vacation. Just when it seems like things can't go more awry, an encounter with a former colleague produces a graphic memoir whose dramatic tale threatens to reveal a buried family secret.
MY THOUGHTS
what in the....i don't even know.
man! i loved Bernadette so maybe i was sorta expecting to be on the same boat with this book. i mean, not too similar but at least in a boat near by. (i dont even know what that means. sorry!)
i don't know. considering i flagged the crap out of it, it was VERY hard for me to connect with this book.
since it came out, I've been picking it up then putting it down waiting for it to finally call me to read it.
(i'm a believer that books call you when they're ready to be a part of your world. yes. i know i am weird.)
then i finally picked it up and right on the first page i was like wtf am i reading?
i had to re-read it several times just to even understand what i was reading.
it's not a bad book. Just like Bernadette, you have a "crazy" mom just trying to discover herself.
she gets herself in some shit, tries to get out of it or fix it or whatever...and along the way she says/does some funny stuff.
i just couldn't get into it.
it wasn't my thing.
by page 112 i wanted out so bad! but since i own the book i figured i should at least finish it cause, library book, fine, return it. who cares, i didn't pay. but when you own it, it hurts a little more to just end it without knowing. (at least it does for me.)
i gotta say, as much as i didn't care for it, i was glad i finished it cause i was able to find out (on pg 230 in case you want to cheat) why she was freaking out about her husband.
i didn't like that it went from her perspective to you reading about her and her family from a narrator's point of view. half of the time it took me several minutes to figure out whose voice i was reading it in.
(cant say its my fault when the book didn't keep me engaged!!!!)
it starts off with her, jumps to her sister, then to her having a breakdown, then you think ********* and then it turns out, that no. shes just crazy. (not literally, just, idk wtf to say.)
i think for me the saving grace of the book was Timby. that little kid was funny.
but also wtf kinda name is Timby?
uhm, overall, i mean, it definitely had its funny moments but i would have been okay skipping this one.
I'll leave you with some of my fave parts and then ill spoil it so fast for you, you'll be like all like "oh. that's it?" and ill be over here like yep.
"Was the sight of us so terrifying that the entire next generation of college-educated women declared "Anything but that!" and forsook careers altogether to pop out children in their twenties? Looking at the Galer Street moms, the answer would be: Apparently.
I hope it works out for them."
-Eleanor pg 30
(pg 36 explains Timby's name. i thought it was funny!)
"My friend Merrill told me that on the first date, a guy without realizing it will tell you why the relationship will ultimately fail."
-Eleanor pg 49
overall, i wish i would've been into it more and liked it more than i did because it did have some good parts and it was a good book it just wasnt my taste.
spoilers below!
thanks for reading
published: 2017
pages: 444
ISBN: 978-0-06-249853-3
read: 3/6-13/2017
read: 3/6-13/2017
rating:
1) i didn't like it 2) it was okay 3) i liked it
4) i really liked it 5) it was amazing 6) i loved it
___________________________________________
"At an early age i learned that people make mistakes, and you have to decide if their mistakes are bigger than your love for them."
-Momma pg 264
___________________________________________
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
MY THOUGHTS
i don't know that ill be able to do this book the justice that it deserves so bear with me.
I'm not a "watch the news" person.
i hate the news. mostly because it's about, 100% of the time, bad news and i don't really need that in my life.
but that doesn't mean that i don't know whats going on when it comes to a lot of things.
specially police shootings.
so this was a refreshing way to view this situation. putting it in writing i think reaches a whole new demographic that might not have paid attention to it before (yes, i know there's papers and Internet and so on...but you know what i mean.)
what i liked about this book is that it shows from Starr's perspective how something like this can damage but strengthen you as a person. how it can make you want to hide but also yell and use your own weapon, your voice. how you can be forced to grow but still in some points, remain a child.
I believe Angie did a very good job in showing that Starr is still a teenager going through the motions and to top it off she now has to handle living with not only seeing the consequences of a cops action but also trying to keep herself as well as her family, together.
(her family is not falling apart at any time but being the key witness takes a toll on her.)
i love that Starr was a teenager throughout the entire book. she never pretended to be more grown up than she was. i like that she lived in the "ghetto" but went to a "classy all white folks school" where she had to learn to give Starr another voice so that people wouldn't judge her as the token black girl. i love that Angie kept her real in all of her feelings and didn't make her the typical character.
basically, i just love the way she made Starr in this story.
i loved that she was honest, when she was, about her feelings but when it finally came down to it, she used her voice.
it might sound weird but this book did open my eyes to the emotions of it all.
and the riots and just everything.
this is a really good read that i DEFINITELY recommend.
in all honesty, i only picked it up because i saw it everywhere on instagram.
i was thisclose to leaving it but I'm glad i picked it up and brought it home. (thanks babe for supporting my habit of buying me a new book every time we go to Costco!)
i loved this book more than i could ever give it credit here.
this is all I'll say on this book but let me leave you with some of my
FAVORITE QUOTES
(before i give you the spoilers!)
"Funny how it is with white kids though. its dope to be black until its hard to be black."
-Starr pg 11
"...people like us in situations like this become hashtags, but they rarely get justice. i think we all wait for that one time though, that one time when it ends right."
- Starr pg 59
"good-byes hurt the most when the other persons already gone."
-Starr pg 66
"my parents have this thing where they never want me or my brothers to talk to somebody without looking them in their eyes. they claim a person's eyes say more than their mouth, and if it goes both ways - if we look someone in their eyes and mean what we say, they should have little reason to doubt us."
-Starr pg 98
"whats the point of having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be."
- Starr pg 252
spoilers below!
thanks for reading!
pages: 293
ISBN: 978-1-250-12100-4
read: 2/26 to 3/2 2017
rating: 1) i didn't like it 2) it was okay 3) i liked it
4) i really liked it 5) it was amazing 6) i loved it
___________________________________________
"As he closes behind me, I can't help thinking it's a shame he's such a sadistic bastard, because he has wonderful manners."
-Grace
___________________________________________
Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace. He has looks and wealth; she has charm and elegance. He’s a dedicated attorney who has never lost a case; she is a flawless homemaker, a masterful gardener and cook, and dotes on her disabled younger sister. Though they are still newlyweds, they seem to have it all. You might not want to like them, but you do. You’re hopelessly charmed by the ease and comfort of their home, by the graciousness of the dinner parties they throw. You’d like to get to know Grace better.
But it’s difficult, because you realize Jack and Grace are inseparable.
Some might call this true love. Others might wonder why Grace never answers the phone. Or why she can never meet for coffee, even though she doesn’t work. How she can cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim. Or why she never seems to take anything with her when she leaves the house, not even a pen. Or why there are such high-security metal shutters on all the downstairs windows.
Some might wonder what’s really going on once the dinner party is over, and the front door has closed.
MY THOUGHTS
what in the chicken nuggets of the world!
(yikes. the review are not great on amazon.)
thanks to Sarah for starting a book club and picking this book because I'm not sure i would have gotten to it sooner. i haven't really seen it all over social media (which is how i find most of my books) so i wouldn't have gotten to it.
anyway, the reviews...
uhm....a lot of people are saying that they don't like the sadistic plot of this story and while i can say it was sort of graphic when Jack is telling Grace the story, that's about as graphic as it gets. i don't want to mention his job on here because i think it could be a bit of a spoiler, but because of his fascination with the subject, i could see how some people would be bothered by some other parts of the story.
it had other stuff but it wasn't disturbingly repulsive to the point of hate (for me anyway).
i think the scene that bothered me the most was the one with Molly.
i fucking haaate Jack for that.
i liked the story.
it did a good job at catching my attention and keeping me in suspense. i wanted to know what happened right away so it was hard for me to put it down (and like always, i jumped around.)
it had me guessing what would happen since the begging. and even if you're the kind of person that's able to figure out what happens in 2 seconds, you might be right. but how did we geeet there!?
i liked that this is told in a past/present form so you get to see what happened (present) and how it all lead up to it (past).
i liked that Millie, even with her disability, was still pretty effin smart.
i liked that Esther was a total bitch in the beginning but she ended up being a home girl in the end.
i think the one thing i disliked about the book was the writing sometimes.
LEARNT
just say learned.
I'm pretty sure there's a very good reason why she used learnt buuut still.
that and i think i might have found another little mistake but i like finding those.
overall, i don't really understand all the hate its getting over on amazon but hey! everyone has their thing.
you couldn't pay me enough to like frozen.
anyway, i cant wait to do the group discussion!
ill probably come back and update the post.
i think the most amazing thing about a group chat on the same book is the way people visualize/interpret things. you can learn something new just by listening to another persons perspective on it! ahhh!!!
as always, spoilers!, right after.
thanks for reading!
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