Book Review!

I have always been a sucker for a good romance. Over the summer I read a book titled "Maybe in Another Life" by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Because of this book, over the summer I read every single book that Reid had written and fell in love with them all!


The best thing about Reid's writing is that it was perfect for a 24 year old like me! It wasn't a young adult book about a senior in high school freaking out about going away to college (like all young adult books I've read lately) but it also wasn't your average adult fiction book about a 40 year old woman who needs to find fulfillment in her life again (like all adult romance books I've read lately). This was my perfect happy medium with a narrator who is under thirty, never been married, and about to move across the country to move in with her best friend.


The most interesting part of the book is that it is actually two stories in one. A few chapters into the book- the story breaks off into two different realities. There is one singular event that changes everything in this young narrator's life. This event splits her reality. The realities change every other chapter and it just fascinated me to see how this effected everything in her life. Some things stay the same, some change in ways that wouldn't seem possible.


For a girl like me, I have always believed in fate. I have always believed that everything happens for a reason and these reasons lead you to the person you were meant to be with. This book made all of my prior beliefs change and I had to reevaluate what I believed. Only a truly awesome book could do that.


You need to read this book. Now.

the MUVE experience

Because I am not very familiar with gaming or MUVE in general I decided to do a little research to see what it really is all about. I know about gaming sites such as World of War Craft and games similar to that, but I wasn't sure how that could be interesting to libraries.


I found a site that talked about virtual realities that involved online schools. They are interactive schools that you can log in to from home. With this kind of world anything could be a possibility when it comes to learning online. You can create your own avatar, go to class at a regular time with other students, and learn from a real teacher. This could honestly be the future for those who are unable to make it to a physical location to learn and who works best with others in a class rather than an online class where you do all of the work by yourself. I found this very interesting to see how this works and not in a "gaming" environment. This could also be great with librarians in the sense of having online meetings or classes that need to be taken for training purposes. This not only could be great for librarians, but for any field of work or study. It is crazy to see how far out technology has come and how easy it can now be to get an education.


here is the link to the blog I found that tells you about this new experience!
https://blog.ecu.edu/sites/elead/muve/

MySpace vs Facebook

Social media has changed so much since when I first became apart of it. I got my first MySpace account when I was in sixth grade. My parents didn't want me to have one so I created an account at my friend's house and kept it a secret. It was exciting to add friends from my class and put my best friends up on my page for everyone to see who was in my top 8. I was able to create my own background and even put my favorite song that week on my page so everyone would know. there were always little quizzes to do and posts about how well you knew your friends. This was a time where selfies first became a "thing" and my friendships that have lasted 12 years really got their start.


Social media has changed though. And I am unsure whether it's because I'm older and not interested as much with social media, or because MySpace was just better than popular websites like Facebook and Instagram. Maybe that's too unpopular of opinion though.


Social Media used to be an expression of myself. My page contained my favorite songs, colors, friends, and quotes. I could make it anything I wanted it to be and I could see how my friend's personalities shined through with their pages as well. Facebook is just not the same as MySpace. They all the same background, offer the same information, and all have at least one picture of what they ate for lunch that week. Facebook is boring at predictable. Though I know that MySpace is a thing of the past, I wish other social media outlets would bring back the idea to showcase individual personalities within its users.


While MySpace gave a connection to help me find my personality, Facebook does have it's perks. With Facebook you can stay linked in with businesses, your school, favorite teams, and even news stations. I was just on the IUPUI Facebook page and it not only told me about the school, I got to see pictures of events, the campus, and up-to-date information on what's happening within the school. I believe, while MySpace is identity driven, Facebook is more of a hub for information and making connections. While I might have used MySpace in the passed to check in on a guy I secretly had a crush on, with Facebook I could look up different companies and/or schools I plan on applying for a  to see what kind of organization they are and see what kind of opportunities they provide.