Hobbies – Page 4 – The Mint Girl Blog

January Top Reads

Here are my top reads for January!

Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
This was a sequel to “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” and I really enjoyed it! I loved the prose and the way that we got to see so much character development and love from Aristotle (Ari). It was such a sweet and beautifully written book and I really loved reading it!
Castles in Their Bones by Laura Sebastian
This book was amazing! Sophronia, Daphne, and Beatrix have been raised since birth to be the perfect queens. Not to rule, but to stop the rulers, bringing down the monarchies of each of their nations so that their mother can claim more land. I really enjoyed this book and each character!
The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist by Sophie Gonzales
I really enjoyed this book! It was wholly based on fanfiction, which I absolutely enjoyed. Ivy is looking forward to having the house for herself, but when she wakes up with her favorite character from her favorite tv show, everything spirals out of control. Suddenly, her fanfics start coming to life! I really enjoyed this book!
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
Death-cast tells people when they’re going to die. And so, when Mateo and Rufus get the call, they know they have to live their last day perfectly. And so, as they find each other, they live out their last day together. This book was perfectly sweet and sad and I really enjoyed it!
Zhara by S. Jae-Jones
This was a really good book! I loved meeting Zhara and learning about who she is and what she would do for her loved ones. It was amazing to see her character development and how that bled into her becoming the strongest version of herself. I can’t wait to read the next book!

This month I read 15 books!

For the past month or so, my school’s theater program has been working on the winter play- Misery by Stephen King. While I wasn’t involved in the play- either tech or acting wise- I did go see it recently and I really enjoyed it!

Misery is a play about an author named Paul Sheldon, who is famous for his Misery series, and his “number 1 fan”, Annie Wilkes. As Paul is driving back to New York, a storm hits and he is luckily saved by Annie. However, as he recovers, he starts to see the true side of Annie-someone who is prone to dangerous mood swings and wants him to stay with her forever. The play ends with Paul eventually killing Annie to make it back to his life as an author. However, she keeps haunting him, telling him how she’s his “number 1 fan”.

I loved watching the play, especially with how well done the tech was, especially the set and lighting!

Darkness

This is a poem I wrote where, for the first line of each stanza, I used the second line of the previous one. I hope you like it!

It’s dark in here
There are no windows
No light,
from the outside

There are no windows,
no way to view
what’s been waiting
for me

No way to view
the truth
of the world
instead forced to accept

The truth-
the darkness isn’t
that bad
you get used to it, or you don’t

the darkness isn’t
your friend, but
it isn’t a monster either
it just lives, and lurks

and you learn to do so too

Top Books of the Year

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas
This was such a good book! Teo is just a Jade, so he’s ready to sit back and watch The Sunbearer Trials while the Golds participate. But when he and another Jade get selected, suddenly his life is torn apart. Teo has to learn to believe in himself and who his real friends are while trying not to get last and be sacrificed. This was such an amazing book and I can’t wait to read the next one!

I really enjoyed this book because of all the representation and the way that mythology was re-imagined.

Call Me Athena: Girl from Detroit by Colby Cedar Smith
This was such an amazing book! We get to see 3 different perspectives, Mary’s and her parents’. I loved the style of writing and the way poetry was eloquently used to tell the story of a French-Greek girl struggling to fit in. The author also included many beautifully written lines that still stick with me. It’s an amazing book!

I really enjoyed this book because of the amazing writing and the quotes that stuck out to me. It was a great read told between dual perspectives.
Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
This was such an amazing book! I’d heard about it for a really long time and so when I was able to get it, I was really excited! This book is about Queen Clytemnestra, one of the most infamous characters in Greek mythology, as she murdered her own husband after watching him kill their daughter as a sacrifice. I loved the way Clytemnestra was portrayed in the book, especially as we got to see her early years and how that led up to who she is. It’s a great story!

I especially enjoyed this book because of my love for Greek Mythology, especially the character Clytemnestra. I’d heard of this book for a while before it’s publication and I was so happy to be able to get it once it released and it definitely lived up to my expectations.
Medusa’s Sisters by Lauren J.A. Bear
I adored this book! It takes the tale of Medusa, one that’s been told many, many times, and reimagines it from the perspective of her two sisters- Stheno and Euryale, who remain virtually unheard of. It takes the story of the Gorgons from the very beginning- since they were born. We learn who they were as they grew up- what made them happy, how they each changed to fit their environment, and so on. I really enjoyed this book and totally recommend it to you!

Medusa is another character in Greek Mythology who’s often painted as the villain and there have been so many retellings of her story. This one was one that I hadn’t seen before and it instantly captivated me.
Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington
This was an amazing book! I loved the way that Adina grew, as she chose to make her own destiny and rules instead of falling in line with tradition. I loved the whole story and the stereotypes that it turned on its head. It was an amazing book and I totally recommend it to you!

I loved the diversity of this book and the idea of making your own life- which was what this book was all about! It was filled with high stakes and competition and I really enjoyed it!
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
This was such an amazing and fun book, filled with dragons and daring. I really enjoyed the premise and the book didn’t disappoint! Reading about Violet was incredible and I enjoyed her journey with her dragons, Adarna and Tairn, the whole time. This was a great book!

This book was amazing to read, especially with all the worldbuilding! It was a perfect blend of fantasy and romance and I really enjoyed it!

Top Books of January: click here
Top Books of February: click here
Top Books of March: click here
Top Books of April and May: click here
Top Books of June: click here
Top Books of July: click here
Top Books of August: click here
Top Books of September and October: click here
Top Books of November: click here
Top Books of December: click here

Joshua Tree National Park

Recently, we visited California, and there, we went to Joshua Tree National Park! We got to see some amazing sights and to commemorate, I wrote a poem in the style of a Golden Shovel. A Golden Shovel poem is when the ending word, usually bolded, of each line (when read from top to bottom) forms a line from another poem. In my case, I used a line from the poem, “Joshua Tree” by A.R. Ammons. I hope you enjoy!

as i stood by the
trees, the wind
whistled by, past the rounding
of the
rocks, through the gap
of the stones and found
me
standing still there
listening to the weeping
of too-heavy branches under
the magnificence of a
true blue sky. there it was, a Joshua
tree

Top Books of November

Truly, Devious by Maureen Johnson
This was a great murder mystery told in 2 different time periods- one in the “present day” and one from when the murder happened. I really enjoyed the plot and the way that we got to see so much of Stevie’s real character. It was a super interesting story and I totally recommend this series to you!
The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson
This is the second book of the Truly, Devious trilogy and I enjoyed it just as much as the previous book. In this book, we can see how close Stevie is to her friends and the way that she struggles
The Agathas by by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson
This was another great murder mystery! Iris and Alice never asked to be paired up, in fact the two are almost exactly opposite. But the disappearance of one of Alice’s ex-friends connects them both as they know they have to figure out who did it because the police certainly aren’t going to do anything. I really enjoyed the way that we not only got to learn about the mystery but also how
Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean
I really loved this book! When Izzy contacted her dad, she wasn’t expecting to make contact with the crown prince of Japan. But when her home gets swarmed by paparazzi and bodyguards, she has to adapt to her new life in Japan. Izzy is such a sweet character and I loved seeing how she adapted to fit in a completely new world with new friends and threats. I really enjoyed this book!
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
This was such a magical book from the very beginning! Iris’ brother is on the war front and all that comforts her is writing letters to him. Letters that he’ll never get, that he’ll never read. But when someone writes her back, they open up their hearts to each other. I really enjoyed this book and the settings. I cant wait to read the next one!

A Streetcar Named Desire

Our final set which we had for performances.

Our theater program has been working on creating an adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire for the past 2 months. I’ve been on tech, specifically lighting- working on focusing lights, building an LED sign, wiring lights together, and so much more. Other departments were tasked with as much, if not more work-set built a platform and a balcony, scenic painted said platform, costumes sewed and bought outfits for everyone (and as the main characters each had a new costume or costume piece per scene, there was a lot to do), props provided the handheld items, and sound found and assembled what was needed for the show. It took all of us working together to create something as amazing as we did.

We performed the last two weekends- the 3rd, 4th, 10th and 11th. Adding on to these scheduled evening shows, we added on an afternoon show on both Wednesday and Friday. All of our shows were sold out which was amaing!

It was really cool to be able to see the show come together. As I was on tech, I never really got to see what the actors did and vice versa. I remember the first time we got the actors to practice on the actual stage and the way that the play started to come to life then. We were able to go from just an idea on paper to a real life set and show, which was an incredible rewarding process

Our original set plan- we designed our set based off of this plan.

Recently, on Tuesday, we had our strike, which was when all the set was “knocked down” and taken down. For me, on lighting, this involved removing LED tape, taking down our fluorescents, taking down the sidelights (lights that shone from the wings of the stage) from the trusses, then removing the trusses themself. Other jobs included removing our balcony, removing the tarp and dirt from the stage, and organizing the piles of wood, tape, and nails. Currently, the stage is almost restored to its original look.

I definitely enjoyed my experience with theater this year and I definitely hope to continue in the coming years of high school!

Studying for High School

5 weeks ago, I started high school. It’s been a completely new experience, but I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve already learned a lot, both about the jump from middle to high school, but also about actual class material.

In Biology, I’ve already learned a lot about viruses, biomolecules, DNA and so much more, for example. We’ve been having unit tests and reading quizzes pretty regularly and we can check our progress with the class calendar. Our teacher simply provides us with

In Algebra 2, we learn a new lesson each class (2 lessons if it’s a block day). Our teacher provides us with printed-out notes and we get to follow along- highlighting, filling in the blanks, and solving the given problems- as our teacher works through the lesson. We have tests and quizzes pretty regularly on a platform called Edia and we get our results in anywhere from 2-7 days.

Similarly, in AP Human Geography, we’re currently on our unit about migrations. We have a multiple choice test (MCT) as well as a free-response test (FRQ) every unit as our end-of-unit tests. We also have vocab and reading quizzes every Friday over the section of textbook that was given to read. Additionally, we have to find the vocab words in the textbook and create flashcards over them, which are checked along with the quizzes.

These are just a sample of my three, most work-heavy classes. Other classes, depending on the teacher, are lighter or provide less work. And even though I call them the work-heavy classes, that doesn’t mean that I’m having a tough time in those classes. I enjoy all of what I’m learning and I can’t wait to add on to what I’ve learnt!

Category: Hobbies