I've finished another book!

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.
Holy.....Holy-goshish-amazing-......stuffness!

This book has everything any reader could ever want.  It's well written, VERY much so.  There's humor, there's things every reader of every age can relate to, there's romance, and sadness.  It's just one of those books that you can't put down once you start reading it. 

I love the way John Green writes.  He has a great way of connecting to the reader and just pulling them inside of the story, even if the story has nothing to do with the reader's life-there's still a strong connection.  I won't go too, too much into the plot because YOU WILL read this book and I don't want to get into spoiling it for you, but it's basically about this girl named Hazel (Hazel Grace) and a boy named Augustus (Gus).  They both have had or currently have cancer and are high school-ish aged, I know sounds way depressing but it really isn't.  Hazel, in the beginning of the book is content to stay in her room and read one book for the rest of her life, but her mom sort of forces her to get out and meet new people.  What better way to do that than at a cancer support group, right?

There, she meets Issac and Augustus, two best friends.  The three of them and their families go through ups and downs of having cancer and all, but the way it's written is just beautiful.  It's not this depressing, sad, pitying story about kids with cancer.  There's so much humor and other good things in this book that half the time, you forget the main characters even are sick.  These cancer ridden kids have their own inner circle of lingo and every thing, too which is just hilarious.  Things like 'cancer perks' and such. 

The book is nothing but amazing and funny and touching and yah...everything.  I'm gushing now. 

READ IT NOW. It's only sad towards the end of the book, maybe the last 5 chapters or so, and it NEEDS to be sad at that point in the book and with the plot and everything.  I feel like if it weren't sad towards the end, the book wouldn't be as great as it is.  Also, John Green, have I mentioned how amazing a writer he is?! Just go to the library and read it...or borrow mine which I've borrowed from my sister. We can 'pay it forward' with The Fault In Our Stars! :D

Holy clear skin!

A while ago I posted a blog about acne/skin care and so on and I had mentioned a product I had been meaning to try for a while...Lush's 'Fresh Farmacy.'  This is perhaps the best acne product I have ever spent money on, holy crapola.   I've only been using it for about a month, month and a half and my skin is pretty much acne-free.  There's only one or two tiny bumps and I know they'll be gone tomorrow.

HOLY. SHIT. THIS. SHIT. IS. AMAZING!

Okay so it looks like this (3.5 oz):

And here's the video that is on the website when you look up the product:

Seriously, this shit is THE shit. After struggling for years and years and YEARS with acne, it's maybe the one product I've ever tried that has not made me break out even more, has not made my skin dry or crackly, and it has only improved the way my skin looks and feels. I can't even say enough about this product.  The only draw back is the price, perhaps.

It's about 10 bucks, which was about what I was paying for my previous face wash. But because I don't have a Lush store close to me, I have to have it shipped...so it costs about 16-17 bucks every time I run out, which I have yet to do.  However, I think it will last a while.

When I first got it, I sliced off a few chunks with a butter knife before realizing you don't really have to do that.  All I do is wet my face after I take my make up off, pinch of a pea sized little bit of the bar and rub it between my hands until it lathers up.  It's AMAZING. It doesn't have a harsh smell, but you can certainly smell the good stuff in this.  It kind of smells like chamomile tea with some coalmine lotion mixed in...sort of. Scents....

I use a lot less make up, a lot less moisturizer, and almost no concealer (except for acne marks that haven't faded enough yet).  Today, seriously, I went out of the house and contemplated wearing any make up at all. THAT'S HOW GOOD IT IS. If you know me, you know what a big deal this is. I haven't left the house with out at least foundation and concealer and powder since...well since before I had acne.

In the end, I wound up wearing only a small amount of my loreal true match foundation and NO concealer. NO concealer?!?!?!?! I haven't done that since....since....EVERDOM! Okay, what else did I want to say?

I wanted to say how much I love Lush's website.  For every product on there, they list (and most of the time will have a picture) of all the ingredients in the soap/lotion/etc that they are selling.  Most of their products are 100% vegan,which is good ( I eat animal products and by-products but when it comes to soap/beauty things its nice to know there's no animal 'parts' or testing). Also, if you click on any ingredient, it gives you a description of what it is and how it benefits your skin : ) .

I also wanted to say how I store the face wash.  Since it's a bar-formed type of face wash, it's a little messier than just having a bottle that you can keep on your bathroom sink.  However, I've found the easiest way to store it is in a Tupperware container by the sink.  You can also save the wrapper it comes with and store it in there, which I wish I would have done...but didn't...'cause I suck lol.

OH! And when you order online, not sure about the store, but when you order online, they give you free samples of things! :) Since I only spent a small amount of money, getting just one product, I only got one free sample but they do give you a good-sample size.  This time I got 'Bohemian' soap and there's literally lemon slices in it :) It smells amazing.  I would definitely recommend Lush for any one of their products.  You can tell they really care about what goes into them and they're made with love, not in some factory.

(All videos, pictures, etc. were found at Lushusa.com)

My to do list for today!

Usually I write to do lists on sticky notes or my wipe board, 'cause I'm OCD like that.  But, today I wanted to write it on my blog so it will remind me to come back and write a blog later today...again, I have OCD...probably.  Anyway, on to the list!

1.) Apply for two-three more jobs.

2.) Call back places that I have applied to for jobs and follow up.

3.) See about selling some of my text books on Amazon.com.

4.) Clean out my closet, majorly.

5.) Post some blogs.  I have a lot of ideas!

6.) Finish The Fault In Our Stars and start Will Grayson, Will Grayson (both by John Green :D ).

7.) Pray my mother doesn't come home so I can relax.  And when I say pray, I mean me going around and pacing saying, "Please don't come home. Please don't come home..." Yup.

8.) Find some kind of food to eat...probably the hardest of all the things I have to do today.

These really should be in some kind of order, but eh, they're really not.  And I probably won't even get to them all...soooooo it's really a to do list for the next two days lol. Hopefully I'll get something done and not just lay on the couch watching HBO movies all day...there's some good ones on right now lol. Okay.  Peace out.

First impressions and some more books on my list.

Okay so a while ago I made a post about some books I wanted to read.  I left off one book that I REALLY wanted to read, because I couldn't remember the name of the book.  Well, I have since started to read that book and let me tell you, it's amazing.  Honestly, I shouldn't even buy books online or in a bookstore any more.  I should just go to my sister's house and borrow books from her. I don't know how, but she always knows which books are amazing.  Anyway, enough babbling.

The Fault In Our Stars, written by John Green:

Okay, so this book is amazing. I can't even say it enough times.  However, I won't post a synopsis along with it, just because you'll do what I did when I read it: "That sounds like a sad book, I'm not going to read it." JUST. READ. IT. John Green is an amazing writer and also has a very successful youtube channel with his brother called, 'The Vlog Brothers.'  Besides being talented in his writing and all of that, he's pretty hilarious, both in this book and on youtube.  Okay, I'll give in and tell you a little bit about the book.

It's about this teenage girl who has cancer. Uh oh, see? Now you don't want to read it. Hang on!  This girl, Hazel, is amazing and funny and she meets a few more cancer patients who become her friends.  She meets Augustus, another cancer patient, well survivor, who immediately likes her and a sort of romance happens, I think (I haven't gotten that far yet).  He does amazing things for her and it is just so sweet and funny and gah. Just READ IT. 

Hazel isn't this 'sick, depressed, stay indoors, feel sorry for herself' person...although there are moments she thinks she's a 'grenade.'  She's just an amazing character and John Green really knows how to just get into his character's heads and make them not only relate-able, but entirely realistic.  It really has not been a very sad book so far.  I'm more than half way done and all I've done is laughed and not been able to put it down. So....once again, I say...READ. THIS. BOOK.


In addition to being almost finished with The Fault In Our Stars, I noticed that on Amazon.com you can read the first chapter of Fifty Shades of Grey, and I did just that. 

First off, it's not the ENTIRE chapter.  They leave out a good chunk.  However, whatever that 'chunk' is, I don't think the reader even needs it.  It's basically the two main characters talking-the woman (Amelia?) interviewing the man (Christian Grey)- and the interview is LONG....kind of boring. Also, I'm not grammar or punctuation person, (as one can see by my horrible-ness of it in my blog posts) but even only into the book a few pages there's a ton of errors.  I don't know if this book had an editor, even, because it was an online book first and they basically just published it out of it being popular and all...but come on.

Also, the way it's written is pretty amateurish.  You can tell that a person was writing it online for fun in his...her? Whatever, in their spare time.  I've been told this book is 'mommy porn' which is why I'm not actually going to BUY a copy...even more so now that I read how poorly it's written on amazon.  Still, I want to read it just for shits and giggles and I am on a waiting list at the library, thanks to my boyfriend who knows how to work library things.  So, I'll post a blog whenever I finally read it...which probably won't be for a long while since the last time I checked, I was number four hundred and something on the waiting list haha.

Now on to a few books I've added to my reading list...I have so many and I realllllllly hope I can get to them all this summer.

Another book by John Green (and David Levithan). Will Grayson, Will Grayson.  I seriously will read any book he writes, honest. Here's the synopsis Amazon.com gives:
"One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, Will Grayson crosses paths with . . . Will Grayson. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, and culminating in epic turns-of-heart and the most fabulous musical ever to grace the high school stage. Told in alternating voices from two YA superstars, this collaborative novel features a double helping of the heart and humor that have won them both legions of fans.:"

Again, I love amazon for the 'look inside this book' thingie-ma-bob. Again, it is a just amazingly written book and although it's written by two people, I really do think it's going to be a good book. Also, I think this is John Green's newest book so that'll be nice to see how his writing has changed, if it's changed at all.


Also, I want to read, you guessed it, another John  Green book, Looking for Alaska

This book won John Green tons of awards! (Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, an ALA Quick Pick, a Los Angeles Times 2005 Book Prize Finalist,and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age.) So, I know a book obtaining a shit ton of awards doesn't make it a 'good' book, necessarily, but this one I know will be...it's John Green. Come on.  The snyopsis I found online is this:
"Miles Halter, a sixteen-year-old with a fascination for last words, begins his scholastic adventure at Culver Creek boarding school in Alabama with an introduction to his roommate Chip "Colonel" Martin, a trailer-bred genius. Chip nicknames the skinny Miles "Pudge" and introduces him to Alaska Young, a beautiful, literate and intellectually gifted teenager with a head full of elaborate pranks. Under the tutelage of his new (and real) friends, Miles learns to drink, smoke, escape punishment, and understand people. A few days following a major, adrenaline-pumping prank, Alaska drives insanely drunk, crashes her car and dies instantly.

Miles and Chip, both grieving for their lost friend, wondering if she committed suicide or was killed accidentally, search for evidence of the reasons behind her death. They also feel guilty because they were the last people to see her alive and did not stop her from driving drunk. From his experiences with this loss, Miles learns valuable lessons about loyalty, friendship, and life.

The novel is divided into two sections: "before" and "after". Miles' school year is comprised of exactly 136 days before and after Alaska's death."


Annnnddd....Damn. I did it again. I have all these books in my head I want to read and when I sit down to actually write them out? Poof. Gone. Damn it. Anyway, I guess that's all for now and as more books are read and more books are added to my mental list, I'll try to blog about them. Done. Peace, yo.