The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999) by Stephen Chbosky

I was so excited to start my reading New Year’s resolution that I quickly picked a book and devoured the entire thing in a single day. I could not have picked a better book to read from my New Year’s Resolution book list. When I picked out my first book to read I had decided that I did not want to just go in the list order so I picked a random number out of hat and went with it. The result of this was The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999) by Stephen Chbosky.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is narrated by a teenager who goes by the alias of "Charlie"; he describes various scenes in his life by writing a series of letters to an anonymous person, whom he does not know personally. The story explores topics such as introversion and the awkward times of adolescence. The book also touches briefly on drug use and Charlie's experiences with this. As the story progresses, various works of literature and film are referenced and their meanings discussed. At the very beginning of the book, Charlie is referred to as a wallflower for his ability to observe and understand things, but over the course of a year's worth of letters, Charlie explains the efforts of the people in his life to get him to "participate" or "do things" and the feelings and experiences he has as a result.

The author, Chbosky, names J.D. Salinger’s The Cather in the Rye as an inspiration, and he pays homage to Salinger’s work by naming it as one of the books that Charlie’s English teacher, Bill, gives him to read.

This was a great read for the New Year since it references quite a few books that are on my list such as Cather in the Rye (Salinger), The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald), and On the Road (Kerouac). It also mentioned a few books I might add to my list once I finish the initial 15: This Side of Paradise (Fitzgerald), Walden (Thoreau), The Fountainhead (Rand), Naked Lunch (Burroughs), and A Separate Peace (Knowles).

Just a few of my favorite lines:

• "Charlie, we accept the love we think we deserve."
• "And in that moment, I swear we were infinite."
• "My sister spent that next 10 minutes denouncing the Greek system of sororities and fraternities. She kept telling stories of 'hazing' and how kids have died before. She then told this one story about how she heard there was a sorority that made the new girls stand in their underwear while they circled their 'fat' in red magic marker." (my commentary on this... funny because these are still the same "rumors" that go around Greek life - I still joined a sorority).
• "Mark said that the amazing white stars were really only holes in the black glass of the dome, and when you went to heaven, the glass broke away, and there was nothing but a whole sheet of star white, which is brighter than anything but doesn't hurt your eyes. It was vast and open and thinly quiet, and I felt so small."
• "There's nothing like the deep breaths after laughing that hard. Nothing in the world like a sore stomach for the right reasons. It was that great."

Moving on to my next book… Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (for obvious reasons).

1. “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw

2. “A River Runs Through It” by Norman Maclean

3. “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov

4. “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac

5. “The Red Badge of Courage” by Stephan Crane

6. “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger

7. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky

8. “1984” by George Orwell

9. “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand

10. “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell

11. “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho

12. “The Last of the Mohicans” by James Fenimore Cooper

13. “Antigone” by Sophocles
14. “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck
15.

What's In A Name?

For any of my regular readers, you have obviously noticed the sudden change in my blog....the Title. I have wanted to do a little revamping on my blog recently without having to up and get a whole new one...so this is what I have come up with.

I have always wanted a Title that just screamed "Mariah" but could never really find one. 'Inscribed In Wet Cement' never actually meant anything. To be honest, I don't even know where it came from and I always hoped that somewhere down the road I would come up with a really cool story to go with it. But over a year later, I still had nothing. So I changed it.

So, here is the story behind my name....Mariah. And no, it has nothing to do with Mariah Carey, as so many people have taken to calling me - thus resulting in my Doppelganger for the week on Facebook.

My Mother was very much into music and musicals when she was a young child. She spent many hours learning different instruments - her favorite being the piano.  She learned songs from just about every musical on the planet. She tried to pass this love of the piano onto my sisters and I, but as we all know I am not one to sit still for very long, so the piano (and any musical instrument in general) was not something I ever picked up. Her favorite musical to play from was "Paint Your Wagon" - very popular at the time (1951), but has sort of gone by the wayside in this generation; it starred a very young (and very dreamy) Clint Eastwood. By the way, my mom was not alive in 1951, don't want to give her age or anything....but she's not that old. The song that she played the most was "They Call The Wind Maria." No, I did not leave off the 'h' accidentally it is spelled M-A-R-I-A, but it is pronounced the way you say my name. Now, everytime I visit my grandparents in Philadephia I can just picture my Mom, as a young girl, sitting at the piano and playing My Song.

I have always known where my Mom got my name from but up until recently I had never actually heard the lyrics. I heard my Mom play it on the piano, but never knew exactly what the words were...just that one line..."They call the wind Maria." One summer, when I was working on the cruise ship, one of the passengers who had just adored me went out and purchased the DVD for me, thinking that it was a crime that I had not heard the entire (lyrics and all) song that was my namesake. They actually spent the entire day hunting it down when they were shopping in Baltimore after their cruise was over and delivered it to me promptly before we were departing on our next scheduled cruise. It has quickly turned into one of my favorite musicals of all times.

I like relating myself to the wind because it's constantly changing, and you can always tell how the wind (the weather) is feeling just by watching it (watching the trees, or a flag, or the waves in the ocean). They are all being moved by the wind. I too think that I am constantly changing. Always learning something new and trying to make a difference in the world. You can always tell how I'm feeling just by the look on my face and I never try to hide anything - my face is always giving away my emotions. And I also think that it is so appropriate because the wind is what moves the sails on a sailboat....and boats are one of my favorite things! =)

Just for knowledge’s sake, I looked up what the name "Mariah" means, and found out it means 'uncertain.' While at first, I must admit that I kind of took that negatively I quickly realized that it isn't necessarily a negative meaning - and I can't deny it I am very uncertain a lot of the times...and that can all go back to the constantly changing aspect as well.

So, all of that being said, Welcome to my remodeled blog!