Happy Birthday to me! I'm 23 today.

Happy Birthday to me—for real this time. Today is my birthday. I'm turning 23.

I had a long, severe stretch of panic for some hours yesterday, and just woke up from a very upsetting nightmare; I'm still shaky as a result, and it makes a day of celebration seem mightily ill-timed, I'll tell ya that. But! But there shall be a day of rest and possibly book reviews and of course reading, and tonight Devon's parents are coming over to celebrate and bringing a flourless chocolate torte tonight (I like my chocolate as dense as humanly possible, thank you). Tomorrow, it looks like I'll be meeting up with my family to celebrate—not sure when or where, but that should also be nice.

Devon's parents are buying me BPAL: a bottle of Velvet (gentle sandalwood warmed by cocoa vanilla and a veil of deep myrrh to replace my nearly-empty imp. Janet (Devon's mother) didn't know why anyone would want to smell like chocolate, but I of course live by chocolate BPAL. This goes on top of my other BPAL purchases, a gift from Devon and a little bit from me, to me. It should be enough to keep me happy, for a while at least. ^_^ Mum says I also have mail waiting at the house—I don't know from who or if it's for my birthday, but I suppose I'll find out tomorrow. And I did a library run yesterday which, even if they aren't books I get to keep, gives me a total of ... eleven novels to browse through and read at my leisure.

Life could be much worse on a birthday.

Book Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Title: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Author: Stephen Chbosky
Published: New York: Pocket Books, 1999
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 213
Total Page Count: 62,283
Text Number: 179
Read For: personal enjoyment, checked out from the library
Short review: Charlie is about to start high school, and so he begins to send letters to an anonymous stranger as an outlet for his fears. His letters continue through the school year, recording his friendships, high school life, mental issues, and ongoing battle to emerge from passivity and actively engage with the world. Although heavy-handed in its themes and discussing a surfeit of difficult issues from suicide to drug use to homosexuality, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is remarkably good. Realistic characters make up for the the unrealistic plot, and Charlie's epiphanies about life and happiness, however small they may be, are meaningful and resonant. The book is swiftly readable, emotional, and meaningful, and I recommend it.

( Long review. )

Review posted here on Amazon.com.