HEY NATALIE JEAN

I just got Hey Natalie Jean in the mail today. I went out for lunch with Nathan and when we returned to the apartment there it was, in a little brown cardboard amazon box sitting on my porch. I unlocked the door and immediately ripped open the package, too full of excitement to think about anything else. And then, Natalie and Huck were right in front of my face, in all their grey hard covered glory.

You see, in 2008 my aunt got a little bit into blogging. As a self proclaimed writer, I had to check it out for myself and haven't really stopped since. Back in those days I was big into checking out the Blogs of Note, secretly crossing my fingers that someday my little blog would be among them.

One day, and I'm not quite exactly sure when it was, I clicked through different blogs of note and stumbled by accident upon a one Nat The Fat Rat (which just goes to show how long I've been reading her blog). It was a picture of Natalie standing next to the giant sign that says "Welcome To Moscow" and my insides got all excited since hey! that's where I live too! So I clicked on her links and read her posts for probably a stupidly long amount of time and I fell completely in love with her.

She was hopelessly optimistic and I absolutely adored the way that she would find meaning in the mundane. It drew me into her world, all the silliness that she was creating by just writing her honest little thoughts about stuff and things.

If you've never been to the little town of Moscow, Idaho, then you have no idea what a different world it is down there. There is a chapter in Natalie's book where she writes about her own private Idaho. Having lived in Moscow for four years, I can say that she put my feelings into words better than I could have dreamt. That little town in all its boringness is also quite beautiful in a really dumb way and sometimes I miss living there more than I care to admit.

Now Natalie inhabits a little apartment in the big New York City and just, hello. Nathan talks sometimes about moving to NYC and I can't help but think of her every time he brings it up. I feel like maybe sometimes I am just two or three steps behind her. Or maybe four or five, but who's counting?

Anyway, this book you guys! In the short amount of time I've had it in my little hands I have read well over the half way mark. She is funny and serious and incredibly relatable. And while I'm not big on the fashion part of Natalie's world, all the other stuff is just so exactly on point with how I feel about a lot of life or have felt in the past. It's vaguely like reading my own words and not unlike finding out that wait a minute here, maybe I am normal after all because other people have large feelings about small stuff and big things as well.

And in the words of Natalie herself, this book is exactly the ham sandwich I was looking for. Who needs a rueben anyway?

Read or Die

There is something entirely gut-wrenching about the ending of a good book. The way the story holds you in an intense grip while you feverishly turn page after page only to reach the very last one and then...and then nothing. It's over. There are loose ends all over the place, nothing is resolved and it leaves you with more questions than answers.

And you have to read the next book.

Or else you die.

It never ceases to amaze me how attached I become to characters in my books. I never completely relate to any one of them though - they are always different than me, some in small ways and some in large ones. I always try to figure out who I'd be though, but no one ever quite matches up with how I feel or think. I suppose I'll just have to write my own book someday - and maybe I will.

I just finished Catching Fire, the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. I know I'm a little late to that party, but I don't tend to gravitate towards things when there is all sorts of hype about them. I like to let things die down a little bit before I make my move. Maybe this means that I only get leftovers at parties, but I'm not much for standing in a line for hours with loads of crazy addicts to fight over something I may not be sure I even want.

But now that I am here and fully engulfed in the world of Panem, I have to know what happens next. My fingers couldn't turn the pages fast enough, my eyes couldn't read the words at the pace my brain was yelling at me to read, read, read! I started skimming words, wondering how this was all going to end up and then it was over.

Here I am left with just my imagination as to what happens next. And you guys, I don't think I can wait for someone to return the book in the library this time. I may have to go and buy it just so my heart can heal a little bit from the wound that was left at that cliff hanger of an ending.

That Suzanne Collins knows how to spin a tale, I'll tell you what. I finished both books 1 and 2 in a mere two days each. I can't stop. If I didn't have to work I'd probably have been able to finish them in a matter of hours. I don't know how to say no to a good story, nor do I think someone should ever ask that of anyone. I love to get lost in a good book. To forget about reality, even if it's only for a short period of time.

There's just something magical that happens when you're not in your own world. It's always an adventure waiting to happen, a new situation with every turn of the page. I can't imagine life without books. What a boring place that would be.