WWW Wednesday (#3)

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading in which we share 3 things: what we’re currently reading, what we’ve recently finished reading, and what we are thinking about reading next!

June 13th

What I’m Currently Reading:

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand – I’m reading this one for extra credit for my global class and I’ve heard amazing things about it. Would you guys like a review when I’m finished with it? I know it’s not YA, but I’ve heard this is a book everyone must read.

What I’ve Recently Finished Reading:

Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson – LOVED this one! Review here.

What I’m Thinking About Reading Next:

Take Back the Skies by Lucy Saxon – I’ve heard pretty mixed things about this but I’m keeping my fingers crossed! Also the author is only 18?! That’s crazy and an amazing accomplishment so I’m really excited to check this one out!

SO, WHAT ARE YOUR WWW’S THIS WEEK? LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS!

xo,

Emily

Review: Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: May 6, 2014

Pages: 449

Format: Hardcover

Source: Bought

Series: N/A

Genre(s): Contemporary

Synopsis from Goodreads:

The Pre-Sloane Emily didn’t go to parties, she barely talked to guys, she didn’t do anything crazy. Enter Sloane, social tornado and the best kind of best friend—the one who yanks you out of your shell.But right before what should have been an epic summer, Sloane just… disappears. No note. No calls. No texts. No Sloane. There’s just a random to-do list. On it, thirteen Sloane-selected-definitely-bizarre-tasks that Emily would never try… unless they could lead back to her best friend. Apple Picking at Night? Ok, easy enough.Dance until Dawn? Sure. Why not? Kiss a Stranger? Wait… what?

Getting through Sloane’s list would mean a lot of firsts. But Emily has this whole unexpected summer ahead of her, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected) to check things off. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go Skinny Dipping? Um…

There was not a thing that I didn’t love about Since You’ve Been Gone! I’d heard wonderful things about it around the time of its release from fellow bloggers and decided that I needed to read this book and I needed to read it NOW. I was originally planning to save this one for a vacation or after my summer officially started, but boy am I happy I didn’t wait! Since You’ve Been Gone would have to be my favorite contemporary set in the summer (I can’t say favorite contemporary of the year because I loved To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before equally).

I had so much fun reading this book! Not only did I totally relate to Emily (I mean, not only do we share the same name, but I’m a lot like her – I don’t do things that are out of my comfort zone, ever) but I loved getting to go on her adventures in order to complete Sloane’s crazy list. That brings me to another thing I loved about this book: LISTS. Guys, I love lists. Sometimes I’ll even write things on lists that I’ve already completed just to cross them off! Since You’ve Been Gone was full of them. Sloane’s lists were my favorite. I loved the friendship Sloane and Emily had in that they could communicate with each other through lists and totally understand what the other meant. That’s a solid friendship right there. Then there were the playlists! As I’ve said before on the blog I’m not a music person, but I really loved the addition of the playlists into the book. Not only are they awesome musical recommendations that I plan on listening to, but they really add to the development of Emily and Frank’s relationship.

Since You’ve Been Gone is a really relationship-driven story. Not really romantic relationships but friendships. I LOVED that. Friendship books are too few in the YA genre. There was the perfect balance of friendship and romance. Seeing Emily make new friends in the absence of the one person she really considered a friend was perfect.

The ending of the book was just as good as the rest of it! I was satisfied and it brought a smile to my face. Overall, Since You’ve Been Gone was a fantastic book about independence, relationships, and the fact that friends can come from unexpected places.

Week in Review: May 25th

Inspired by Anna @ Anna Reads.

What  I Did:

I had/have a long 4-day weekend so I spent some time book shopping, reading, blogging, and tried to get outside as much as possible! I finally got to play tennis again with some friends that are home from college and I had a great time! It was also #IReadYA week so I had tons of fun scrolling through the Twitter hashtag and chatting about YA!

Links I Loved:

• Jackie @ She Reads She Blogs went on a rant about all the pretty British boys that have taken over the world of YA book to screen adaptations!
• April & Jen @ The Starry-Eyed Revue had some really great commentary regarding their (and I think a lot of readers’) love/hate relationship with LOVE TRIANGLES.

In which I gush about…Book covers & the people that design them!

Lately I have been thinking a lot lately about what I want to do after high school and college. I know that’s way off in the future, but I’m getting really excited about it! I’ve known for a long time that I want to go into the graphic design field. More recently I’ve been looking into jobs that combine both my love of books and design into one. I’ve pulled up many publishers’ job openings pages and scrolled to find the art and design occupations and I guess I’ve finally decided on the exact job I want: I want to design book covers.

Some people may think that in a world where there’s the possibility to be a scientist or a doctor, being a designer isn’t the best job choice. I get the impression my counselor at school feels this way. She tried to discourage me from the arts and even went as far as saying that I shouldn’t want to be a “starving artist.” Of course I don’t want to be a starving artist, but art is a passion of mine, just as books are. I strongly believe that going to work as a designer every day would make my days enjoyable instead of some that wish they chose a different path.

Clearly I love art, but the thing that I realized told myself that graphic arts was the way to go was when I discovered that I have an obsession with FONTS. Typography, typeface, whatever you want to call it. I love it. And I love the way an artist can blend typography together with a photograph, or other art to create a book cover.

Even more importantly, I love the way in which a book cover has the ability to influence a person’s decision about whether or not they pick a book up to see what it’s all about. I want to be able to catch a person’s eye with a cover I’ve designed and be able to know that I helped someone experience a new story. That feeling would be worth the world to me. Because let’s face it, we all judge books by their covers.

What really got me thinking about this was that I recently bought Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson. That cover has to be one of my favorite covers of all time. It’s simple, yet gets the vibe of the story across perfectly. I’m pretty much obsessed with it. So I did my research. I found out the jacket designer was Lucy Ruth Cummins and she designed more of my all time favorite covers, too!

        

I’m not really sure the point of this post other than to talk to you guys about the future I’m hoping for and my love of covers. But, if any of you are cover designers or work in the design department of publishing I would love to hear more about the job itself. The good and the bad, what you like and dislike, etc. I want to know all about it! Also tips on courses I may want to take in the future to better my chances of getting a position…anything and everything I want to hear it!

xo,

Emily