Les Miserables

One day more -
another day,
another destiny
This neverending road to cavalry...

I saw first saw Les Miserables at our local(ISH) Grammar School. My mum's friend's son was in it, and they had been practicing for about a year ( - that's right. A year!), so we thought it would be good.

In the leading-up of seeing the show, we listenened to the soundtrack from Les Mis pracically ... religiously. So we had some pretty high standards when we went to see it. And those standards were more than met! The show was wonderful, they actually sang it just the way that it was sung in our soundrack (West End, of course) and it was stunning. Absolutely brilliant, moving on so many levels. It was the School Edition. My favourite songs are One Day More! and The Finale, which can make me cry sometimes. I also love Castle on a Cloud for an audition - however, I did not get the part, because I didn't look old enough. Which is pretty darn cruddy, since the minimal age for being in it is 11, and I'm 13. Anyway, I'm posting this, because guess what?!
I'm seeing it on WEST END!! In LONDON!
I mean, probably.
But I am going to London (see my next blog post, about my Europe trip....). And it's apparently going to be in Australia next year. (my mum says that maybe we should see something else then, but I'm not sure. I guess I'd like to see Phantom of the Opera... or Billy Elliot. I've seen the dvd of that. I've seen Wicked three times, but only in Sydney. I think I ought to stop going over all my favourite musicals now).


... Hmph.
Now I'm listening to music from Phantom of the Opera. And am painfully compelled to do a blog post about how much I love THAT as well.

My Three Worlds

I had three worlds;
I lived in them all.

The first world was filled with numbers and letters - meaningless letters. Cell diagrams, gum stuck under desks, swear words shouted down corridors, pointless drama, girlfriends and boyfriends making up and breaking up all over the place, tears and words and yelling, missing the bus, sport in blue shirts, new people, millions of classes. There were friends, there were. But those friends were nothing like the ones from world number two.

Number two was the world of gelato and libraries, laughing and walking, house to house. Purple hair, freedom, sunshine and shelter. Shops and books, food and candy. Friends, happiness, conversing, Converse. Jokes, brilliance, wonder. And when I got home, I would retreat to world number ... three.

Number three was filled with ... everything. I flew with The Flock, I cried for Rue. I read with Mo and Meggie, I studied at Hogwarts. I cried with Gemma, danced my way through the Bellezza. Yann and I explored the Catacombs, I stole for The Thief Lord, I lived in the pink house with the Boatwright sisters, painted myself black and ran with Rudy, fell down the rabbit hole again and again, I lived on Montmaray, I fell in love with Sam Roth ... everything in this world was fantastic.


But now, there are problems with the worlds. An explosion, a bang, caused One and Two to combine, mix together, ruin everything. They both turned on their heads, confusion spread like spilt water, soaking up everything in its path.
So now, what is there left to do but hide inside my third world? It was, I had to admit, a tiny bit neglected. And so I'm making it new again. Painting the walls in the houses, refurbishing, renewing and loving.

School!

Well, then.
It has happened. ("What has happened?" you may ask ...)
School started again for the year.



JOY!
Note the sarcasm.

Anyway, I'm in year eight this year. So that's alright. And my best friend is in year seven... I'm actually really happy that I'm not one of the new and oh-so-little year sevens anymore. Even though the classes are harder.
That's okay, really.
Some of my classes were too easy anyway...
but some most certianly were not.

Anyway, that's about it.
I just thought it was worth a mention, seeing as it's a rather big thing in my life right now.

Best Books of the Summer!

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, at the beginning of the Summer, I set up a pile of books in my bedroom, and planned to read them all throughout the Summer. Summer's basically over now, I go back to school in two days, so I'm nearly out of time to read through the pile. I was looking at the pile the other day, and I realised that, while I most certianly haven't read my way through the pile, I added books to it quite a lot throughout the Summer, and if I had not added to it, I would probably be entirely done with the pile! Which is quite great indeed.

Now, I read about fifteen books over the past six or so weeks. I'm rather disappointed, really. The pile originally seemed much larger than that, and yet, that is how many I read.

So.

I'm terrible at book reviews. TERRIBLE. But I'd like to give a small run-down on the books that I most enjoyed this Summer:

1. The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd

People have been trying to make me read this book for years now, and I truly don't know why I never have until now. It was a gorgeous book, that made me want to take a pencil and underline all the wondeful lines and phrases. It was composed brilliantly, put together like a masterpiece. It is a masterpiece.

2. The Red Necklace & The Silver Blade, by Sally Gardner

Sally Gardner is a genius. A brilliant, fantastic, genius. How wondefully and creatively she can make this brilliant, theatrical story of the French Revolution come to life in such gripping, heartfelt and heartwarming books is beyond me. She takes what was already so very interesting and multiplies it by ten.

The characters: Yann, Sido, Count Kalliovski, everyone ... they are unforgettable.

While reading both these books, I cried. I laughed. I did not put them down.



3. Wings, by Aprilynne Pike

Wings.

I read Wings in about one day, and it completely captivated me. The ... atmosphere was brilliant. I can't quite explain it, but I must say, I truly enjoyed this book! For the first half, Laurel, the main character, bugged me. She was so perfect, her life was just this is how it is, she seemed almost conceited in a way. But she grew on me. A lot of the reasons why she was perfect made sense to me as the book continued and secrets were unveiled. It is definetely a bit childish in a sense, but in another sense it was very, very good.

The Enemy, by Charlie Higson

I admit, I only began to read this book because all my friends were reading it. It didn't look too good; mostly just gruesome and bloody, the sort of book that's aimed at boys to get them to read.

It was nothing like that.

What The Enemy ended up being was a hugely believable, emotional, gripping, dramatic and action-packed book. I didn't want to put this down once, and I was constantly thinking about it. I'm not quite sure how to describe a lot of this book, but it was very, very good ....

4. Stravaganza: City of Masks

City of Masks was simply wonderous, fitting and gorgeous. Sometimes while reading this book, I felt as though it was made for me. Set largeley in an opposite version of Venice, the whole book was perfectly paced, with a gorgeous setting and fantastic characters, this book was a fantastic escape to a different world, and I loved it.

... And some other books I enjoyed:

-About a Boy

-The Lovely Bones

-Too Close to the Falls.

I'm also reading Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld, and it is awesome!