Your life can change in the blink of an eye…

This was first published on Blogcritics:

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-still-lolo-by-lauren/

Lauren Scruggs’s Still LoLo is quite an inspirational and moving memoir. In the aftermath of a terrible life-altering accident, Lauren and her family managed to maintain their faith in God and know that he is still there looking after the family. Lauren’s story is sad at times but also radiates positivity when you see how supportive her family is of her and her actions.

The memoir emphasizes the fact that even when confronted with great disability, there is still a chance to have strong ability. Lauren was badly injured in an accident where she was walking off a plane and walked into the still spinning propeller. She fractured part of her skull, had major damage to her left eye, and had her left hand severed. It was a horrific accident that changed her life forever.

Before the accident she had been a vibrant, energetic, and passionate journalist who had created her own lifestyle magazine with a friend from college, LoLo Magazine. Her parents had divorced when she was only four which certainly impacted her and her identical twin sister, Brittany. They remarried when the sisters were eleven, which was the answer to their fervent prayers, and any hard feelings their parents held towards one another seemed to have been resolved. The sisters had attended the same college although Lauren had been indecisive about what she wanted to do with her life and had spent one spring interning in the fashion industry, which helped to grow her passion for style and beauty.

After the accident when she was lucid enough to realize what had happened to her, she went through a very dark period where she struggled to deal with the pain of losing her eye and hand and having the left side of her face scarred. Her parents, sister, and friends were tremendously helpful to her during her recovery, and with time she learned that she would still be able to do many of the activities she had been involved in before the accident.

This book proved to be a beautifully written story of faith, hope, and love–and shows that even in the darkest of times there is still a light at the end of the tunnel. Though the accident changed the Scruggs family, it also brought them closer together as they encouraged and supported Lauren through every step of her journey to recovery.

Get sucked into the world of “Shadowhunters and Downworlders”

Shadowhunters and Downworlders

Edited by Cassandra Clare

                Shadowhunters and Downworlders is a collection of essays reflecting on the relationships between major characters in the “Mortal Instruments” series, the characters and their personal qualities, and even the art of the rune.  Before reading this book I had not read many literary analyses so this proved to be a unique reading experience. It allowed me to see what different writers of young adult fiction were able to gain from the world that Cassandra Clare created in her popular series.

The book begins by examining the location and how it affects Clary’s perception of the world. Locations are very important in the series as pivotal events occur in both the real world and the world of the Shadowhunters. The first essay delves into the author’s reflections on New York City and Brooklyn and then goes into her views on City of Bones, the first book in the series. Clary had a very clear sense of her world which was thrown off balance when her mother went missing and she was thrust into the world of the Shadowhunters. It caused her to have an altered perspective on where she had lived all her life.

A unique essay reflected on Clary as a warrior and how her power to create new runes enabled her to be successful in battle. This showed that you didn’t necessarily have to possess physical strength to be a warrior and that mental strength could perhaps be even more advantageous to a warrior. Clary possessed the mind of an artist and her creativity was her strongest weapon.

Some essays proved to be more interesting than others as not all of the essay topics piqued my interest. I thought that the book overall gave fans of the series new perspectives on the characters and maybe even inspired others to try the books for the first time. It certainly provides for some interesting discussion topics such as the concept of “the Other” and the incest taboo. The book was thought-provoking and broadened my understanding of a series that I have been a fan of since book one.