DIANA RODRIGUEZ WALLACH

I’m admittedly ripping off another author here. Yes, you read correctly, I’m stealing inspiration. But if I come clean and tell you that, that makes it less wrong, right?

You see I read a lot of blogs. I have dozens upon dozens of publishing-related blogs saved in my Bookmarks. I don’t read all of them regularly, but I do scan them all occasionally. And recently, I came across a cute blog that was reviewing books in Haiku form. However, for the life of me, I can’t remember where exactly I saw this (if you know, please tell me).

But I thought the idea was so clever, I’ve decided to give it a whirl.

Now, let me warn you—I’m not a poet. Like, not at all. I took one poetry class in college (EN 246) and when tasked to either create a Shakespearean-esque sonnet based on one of his timeless themes, or to create a sonnet using all of his rhythms and structures—I chose the latter.

Everyone else in the class took the assignment oh-so-seriously and wrote deep college-sounding sonnets about love, turmoil, and death (for which most of them got a ‘C’) while I instead wrote a very technically sound sonnet entitled, “Shall I Compare Thee to A Dental Visit.”

I think it ended with something like, “So long as men can eat and gums can bleed/So long live germs that lead to cavities.”

I’m not joking. And I got a B+ on that poem.

Anyway, I’ve decided to dip back into my poetic bag of tricks and try to create some reviews for books I’ve read (or re-read) within the last month. So here goes:

MY HAIKU REVIEWS

“Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins
Kids fight to the death
Mad Max meets Project Runway
Could not put it down

“Paper Towns” by John Green
Funny and witty
Too many Walt Whitman quotes
Writing style rocked

“Angels & Demons” by Dan Brown
Just filled with clichés
Writing needed lots of work
Plot was very good

“Bridget Jones’s Diary” by Helen Fielding
Just as funny now
Literary comfort food
Her Singletons rule

“War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy
Fighting through pages
Need to read all the footnotes
A smart person book

Feel free to leave your own Haiku reviews in the comments. I’m always looking for book recommendations!

POP CULTURE RANT: So You Think You Can Dance

I guess I should have known they’d split up the brothers, but man, did that suck. Could you imagine knowing that the reason you got the chance of a lifetime was because you prevented your brother from getting his chance of a lifetime. And at the same time, wouldn’t you feel guilty for watching your bro on TV and wishing that were you? That was cold, Nigel. Not that they had to put them both through, but it was mean to leave them to the final two. I think it would have been kinder to deliver the news separately, so their fates weren’t tied. Regardless, can’t wait for the season!