Heidi's Haven

Unfortunately, I have limited space in my apartment at my new school, which means that I could only take a couple of books with me when I moved. These books are ones that have been in my TBR mountain  pile for a long time that I really wanted to read, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. I realize I'm a little premature with this TBR, since it's still September, but with how busy I am with school I probably won't be getting to read much until October. 1. The Lost Hero  by Rick Riordan I have heard really good things about this author, though I haven't read any of his other books yet. I think it's in the same sort of universe as the Percy Jackson series. I've read a couple of chapters so far and I'm really enjoying it! 2. Dreamland  by Sarah Dessen I really love some of Sarah Dessen's books, while some are just okay. This book is pretty short, so it will be a nice, quick read.  3. Wedding Night  by Sophie Kinsella I abs...

Hey guys! Today I'll be writing a book review of a book I read in August. (This is also my first book review and I'm pretty excited to finally be writing this!) The book I want to tell you all about is Beneath the Surface by John Hargrove. The author, John Hargrove, is a former SeaWorld orca trainer. A few months ago, I watched the documentary Blackfish , which talks about the treatment and lives of the whales at SeaWorld, and all of the dangerous incidents that happened with the whales leading up to the death of trainer Dawn Brancheau. John Hargrove is one of the trainers who spoke in the film about what really happens at SeaWorld. What I particularly enjoyed about this book is that the author never verbally attacked SeaWorld, he simply told the facts of what he experienced while working there. While he talks about why whales should not be in captivity and how SeaWorld isn't taking as good of care of these whales as they'd like us to believe, ...

Hey there! So some pretty exciting things have happened. I recently moved two hours away from home to a new university. How scary is that! I really love it here so far (apart from the classes haha), and I'm really looking forward to some new experiences. Also, in August, I went to Chicago for two days with my mom and my sister. My sister wanted to go to the Art Institute of Chicago, and I wanted to go to the Shedd Aquarium, so that's exactly what we did! I saw so many amazing paintings at the Art Institute. I saw some by Monet and Van Gogh (some of my favorites!), which I really wasn't expecting. I live in kind of in the middle of nowhere and I had expected such famous paintings to be in New York or Paris. It was such a great surprise seeing them so close to where I live! We also did a bit of sightseeing-- you can't go to Chicago without seeing the "bean"! On our second day, we went to Shedd Aquarium. I absolutely LO...