Stuff as Dreams are Made on

Bad Bloggers Time!!!

2012-01-23T22:05:00.003-06:00

So this will be the first bad bloggers over at the new/old blog :D In case you can't tell by my actually posting for once, I've been really happy being back at blogger. It just feels right and I'm thoroughly enjoying blogging again :) I missed it so much and it's great to be in touch with all of my friends again!!! Anyway, with the new financial plan, not as many books have come into the house this time...but it's still more than it should be :p Especially considering I BOUGHT some of these which should be a no no right now. Ah well :p

1. Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present by Neil Miller - Just happened to come across this one on paperback swap and it sounded REALLY interesting! It's a chunkster too! (Paperback Swap)

2. Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger - I've just had my eye on this one for a long time now and my turn finally came up on Paperback Swap for it! I believe it deals with transgendered issues. (Paperback Swap)

3. The Unwritten Volume 5 by Mike Carey - It's an AWESOME freaking series...and I still haven't read the fourth book, but I must have all of these :p (Bought it)

4. Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card - Had this one preordered!! It's a new Ender book so I couldn't pass it up :p I'm in the middle of it right now and it's really freaking good!!! This one follows Bean and his children. (Bought it)

5. The Secret Life of Lobsters by Trevor Corson - Anyone care to guess who gets a point for this book? :p If you guessed Care, then you would be correct!! Saw she got this one for Christmas and had actually read it and talked about how much she loved it, so I figured I needed a copy too ;) (Paperback Swap)

6. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey - I've been wanting to build up a collection of these gorgeous Persephone books and found this one for a great price and couldn't pass it up! (Bought it)

7. The Cage of Zeus by Sayuri Ueda - Found this one while browsing at Barnes and Noble and it sounded SO GOOD!! It's sci fi by a Japanese woman that plays with gender. I mean, what's not to love about that? (Bought it)

8. The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt - Couldn't pass this one up either!! I've been wanting this book since it came out and Ana reviewed it. Found a first edition hardcover at B&N for $6.98...of course it came home with me :p Point to Ana for this one! (Bought it)

Gardening Time!

2012-01-21T17:01:00.002-06:00

Not that it ever really stopped here. What a HORRIBLE Winter! Yes, I would like to garden 12 months a year, but I'd RATHER have an icy cold winter. Here we are with the temperatures not dropping below 60 degrees for the forseeable future. I'm actually worried that my fruit trees (the pomegranate and meyer lemon) won't fruit this year because they basically had NO dormant time. The lemon tree never lost any leaves and it's starting to bloom again and the pomegranate started blooming again before it even lost all of it's leaves. We'll see what happens. I have daffodils and tulips and peonies popping up too! The first daffodil never flowered. Just big leaves :( Probably same problem...no dormant time.

The good side of all of this however, is that I got to play in the garden today. I planted two little volunteer tomatoes that popped up IN my pomegranate tree from when I composted it. So I just dug them up and transplanted them into the garden. That's all that's in the main garden right now. I tilled the soil today and will let it sit for a couple of weeks before getting ready to plant my transplants. I'm doing the whole garden from seeds this year! I planted thirty two and they're all starting to peek out of the soil now. Should have a fun garden this year :)

While outside today I noticed that the broccoli is actually starting to grow actual broccoli! I assure you this is huge news for me. I've never had broccoli grow succesfully before. Now if I can only get the cauliflower and brussel sprouts to do the same thing!

This is all I got out of my measly winter garden...it never does great. Got a couple of turnips and carrots that will be cooked with a pork roast tomorrow, and some salad greens. I planted the mini greens this year and I really love them! When I have my own house, might just do one whole bed of salad greens. I've never really had luck with lettuce though.

Anyone else able to garden yet? If so, I'd love to hear all about it :D I'm doing a seed swap with Jeane this year and I'm super excited!! Which reminds me I need to send her a list of seeds I have! If anyone else wants to do a seed swap just let me know! I love doing stuff like that :) Oh, and one more question...does anyone have a preference on whether they'd prefer to see gardening posts here or on tumblr? Or both? Just curious!

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

2012-01-21T00:17:00.004-06:00

I just now finished this book and I want to write about it while it's completely fresh in my head and the emotions are still raw. I hate that we lose some of that rawness after a period of time with books, but I suspect this one will hang around for awhile. I talked to two friends during the last 100 pages. I talked to my dear Renay over gchat to tell her "I don't know that I've read a book this emotional before. It's like he said 'how can I mentally destroy my readers for a few hours'" and then I texted my Matt and told him "God, I've literally cried through 70 pages of this book and there are still 30 pages left."

Let me mention that I don't think John Green is a sadist. I don't think he intentionally set out to destroy his readers mentally. But lord did he. In a good way though. This is a big statement from me, but I don't think I've ever known another author to get to the heart of the human experience and to touch upon human emotions so well as John Green does it. He's done it in all of his novels, but he's written a true treasure here. Something that can't be repeated.

As I think most people know, The Fault in Our Stars is about young people living with cancer. And I think the word "living" in that sentence is important. It's a gorgeous, yet heartbreaking tale of two people, Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters, finding love and beauty in the moments that they are able to share together. Being able to accept that life blows sometimes, that it's not always pretty, but that there are moments and people that make it undeniably awesome.

There's not much more to say as far as the plot goes. There's an amazing book within this book that I wish actually existed, and an author that Hazel and Augustus want to meet, but that arc is not the central theme of the book. The theme is once again the experience of that book and of wanting to meet the author. This is a book of experiences. One that hopefully we won't all face, specifically when it comes to cancer, but experiences that we can all benefit from and hope to have.

As for criticism of the book itself, I really have none. The characters are top notch. They are so three dimensional that I can visualize them so easily. They're human. I can imagine them outside of this novel. They're flawed and they're perfect. I remember, I once emailed my friend, Ana, years back when I was writing my first NaNo novel and said "I'm not really sure how to write from a woman's point of view." And honestly, it's one of the best discussions I've ever had because Ana showed me the fault in my thinking. I may never know the experience of being a woman in today's society, but I know how to be HUMAN. To say I couldn't write from a woman's perspective was really unfair and that conversation was one of the best I've had. John Green proves that point in this novel. The book is told from Hazel's perspective and John Green is certainly not an adolescent girl, but he gives us this beautiful human in The Fault in Our Stars.

I don't know what else to say really about this book. I feel like I could ramble for days about it, but rambling is usually not a good idea when it comes to me and writing. If you want more beautiful thoughts on this book along with some of my favorite quotations from this book, I'll point you to Debi's review who is NEVER allowed again to say that she doesn't write good book reviews. I think you'll find that's just not a true statement.

"That's the thing about pain," Augustus said, and then glanced back at me. "It demands to be felt."

-The Fault in Our Stars, page 63

P.S. Once you finish the book, you should go read Ana's amazing thoughts on the book.
She puts into words so beautifully so much of what I cannot.

P.P.S. Just found this fan art by Amy Irving and it's freaking adorable:

Random Thoughts

2012-01-19T23:50:00.001-06:00

I was wondering if anyone is having any problems with my blog, first of all. Deslily brought it to my attention that when she tries to comment on my blog, it freezes up...is this happening with anyone else? It may be that I need to switch themes...don't really know. But if you're having problems and can't comment, let me know via email or twitter please!!

I finished John Green's An Abundance of Katherines a couple of days ago and I can't for the life of me review it because I started The Fault in Our Stars immediately after and WOW this book blows it away. I think this book even blows Looking for Alaska away! It's seriously incredible. So many beautiful quotes in that book. I really DO want to talk about Katherines, but unfortunately, I just can't seem to even get any thoughts together about it. Except that it was good. Maybe down the road...

I'm also reading The Power of the Poppy by Kenaz Filan right now, which is super good so far. I've always been in love with poppies for as long as I can remember. I think they're some of the absolute most gorgeous flowers and the history both medically and socially behind them is pretty damn awesome. So I'm enjoying this one and looking forward to telling you all about it!

I've wanted to grow poppies forever, but they don't ever seem to want to grow for me :( One of my most vivid memories of my last trip to see Debi was when we went to this little farm that has putt putt and stuff for kids and they had a wildflower garden there with tons of gorgeous poppies mixed in :) This was probably the best shot I got of them:

I'm going to try to grow them again this year...I bought a whole bunch of wildflower seeds AND a whole bunch of poppy seeds to go with the veggies this year. So excited that gardening season is coming up again!! Though sad at the same time that our winter seems to be over already :/ It's downright WARM down here. But I have all of my vegetable seedlings started :) Growing more than ever this year! And if I can ever get a house....well just imagine how big the garden will be if I can dig up the whole yard :p

Anyone else reading anything good? Starting any gardening plans?

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

2012-01-17T20:59:00.001-06:00

So some of you may be sick of me talking about this book already :p I know some of my family and friends are sick of hearing about it, but dammit! I'm more excited about this book than I've been about anything in a long time. And I can't thank my dear friend, Carl enough for telling me about it. This is the year that I'm giving my debt the finger. I have three main goals this year: Get my LPC (can almost check this one off the list), get rid of my debt (or start to), and buy a house.

I always looked at my debt as something I would just always have. It's horrible. I HATE debt. I've had it since I was 18 and signed up for my first stupid ass credit card. But after reading The Total Money Makeover, I have not just hope, but assurance that I don't have to have debt forever and I can live comfortably on an income that I never thought would allow me to.

The thing about Ramsey's book is, it's all common sense. Things that you slap yourself in the head for not doing already. It's also highly motivational featuring stories from other people who have gone through his plan. The plan is really simple. The basics of it are set aside a $1000 emergency fund, budget yourself using a written system with envelopes involved. Pay off your debt from smallest to largest. Put aside a 6 month emergency fund. Pay off your house. Invest. Spend. Give.

Of course he has a precise method in which to do all of this that makes a ton of sense. You read what I wrote and probably think "if only it were that easy." The thing is...it is. I've only been doing this for a week now and see big changes already. First of all, my credit card is cut up. I've budgeted my money I can spend on food and gas and other things so I am more aware of what I'm doing.

The book is really well written too. There was never a time where I thought "what the hell is this guy talking about." I'm not the brightest when it comes to finance, but I understood AND enjoyed this book a lot! One thing to note is that Dave Ramsey is a Christian and he's a preacher. I know a lot of people (like myself) are wary about books written by preachers, but he DOESN'T preach in this book! There are some bible quotes throughout, but I never thought that I was reading a Christian book or having religion shoved down my throat.

I posted my financial goals a week ago and plan on continuing to post once a month about where my finances stand now....Hopefully if you're not convinced by my review that this can work, the numbers I post can show you :) And trust me...I don't make all that much money. But I can still see how this can work! Needless to say, I highly recommend this one!

I'm back home guys!!

2012-01-16T22:07:00.002-06:00

I missed my old home. I really did. So here I am, back with blogger finally. I went to wordpress for awhile and then self hosted for awhile and never really felt comfortable to be honest with you. And this year is all about reconnecting again, so I thought I'd go back to my original blog home :) You can get here one of two ways: http://chrisa511.blogspot.com or http://dream-stuff.com. They'll both point you to the same place. I've changed things around since 2008, the last time I was here. And honestly, it's a work in progress so pardon the shitty look of the blog right now :p Anyway, it feels good to be back and hopefully there will be more posts than 2011 saw!! Thanks to anyone and everyone who followed me over here :)

Goodbye to Blogger...but not to Blogging!

2008-01-30T21:48:00.000-06:00

I'm being a royal pain in the ass :p Have no fear, I'm not leaving blogging, I'm just moving. I switched to Wordpress. This has been a project in the works for awhile and I'm finally happy with it, so you can now join me over at my wordpress blog! I won't be posting on Blogger anymore. So if you don't mind, please update your blogroll links...I'm sorry I'm such a pain! But even better yet...I bought my own domain name! So you can get to me either by typing in stuffasdreamsaremadeon.com (I know, annoyingly long) or you can go to chrisa511.wordpress.com. See you on the other side!

Uh-Oh Part 2...And Lots Of Other Stuff

2008-01-29T23:45:00.000-06:00

It's all gone to shite! Anyone placed bets on my New Years resolution not even lasting a whole month? If you did, you won! To be honest, this is the longest a resolution has ever lasted I think, lol...sad, huh? A couple of days ago I thought I'd take "just a peek" over at bookcloseouts.com and it all went downhill from there and I left with 5 books :/ And with shipping they were all under $30, so who can blame me :p Here's what I got:

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbuy - I've been wanting this one for awhile. I fell in love with Ray Bradbury's writing last year and this one came highly recommended by plenty of people! It can be a bonus read for the plant category in Annie's What's in a Name challenge!

Time and Again by Jack Finney - This one came recommended by Carl and I've never been disappointed by anything that he's recommended. So I'm really looking forward to it! Love those time travel books!

The Pinhole Egg by Diana Wynne Jones - I've been wanting to read some Jones for ages. I know that both Nymeth and Darla D. are huge fans of hers and I loved Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle which was based on her book. Can't wait!

In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami - This one came recommended by Scott at Booky Ooky and I'm really excited about it. I've been on this Japanese kick and I wanted something different. This one looks sexy, violent, and sadistic...I love a book like that every now and then ;)

The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King - This is my super bargain buy! Hardcover version for $4.99 and I got the last copy on their website! It first came recommended by Eva, Dark Orpheus seconded that recommendation and then Deslily sealed the deal for me on this one. I really can't wait to read this whole series of Mary Russell books!

As if that wasn't enough (heh....) I went and ordered two books from England today through Amazon UK :p I had to pre-order my copy of Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman. It's not being released here in the states. It was written for World Book Day which is a UK thing and the books only cost 1 Pound (about 2 dollars)! Of course with shipping over seas, that comes out to about 12 bucks....but it's a new Neil Gaiman book, so I bought it and while I was there, I also picked up The Lost Boy by Duncan Staff which Quixotic reviewed on her blog today. It sounds great and I haven't read a true crime book in a long time. Don't know if "great" is the right word, but interesting...

Other news...I've been selected for Barnes and Nobles first look program for the month of March! Anyone else make it in? We're reading a book that sounds really good and reminds me a little of The Thirteenth Tale from the synopsis. The book is called The Sister and is written by Poppy Adams. This is her first book and I can't wait to join in the discussion and talk with her about her book! You can read more about the book and read an excerpt here.

More good news of the day...there's going to be an Ender's Game video game!!! It was announced today! The game is going to focus just on the battle room. They decided that there was so much that they could do that they would choose just one aspect of the book and the battle room is what the game will be. I can't wait! It's going to be on all of the gaming consoles including PCs and the handheld consoles. A company called Chair is doing the game. The same company is also making Empire, one of Card's latest political thrillers into a video game. Card is fully on board with the game and is excited about it. Me too :)

Now for a meme...Literacy Chic tagged me for this one and I love these. They're fun.

Book Meme Rules

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

The book nearest me is Watership Down by Richard Adams. Actually it's the ARC of the new Fablehaven that I'm about to start, but I can't release any of that yet ;) so we'll use Watership Down, the next book on the stack!

"Later, Hazel had said that there was nothing for it but to cross the open pasture and under Silver's direction they had crossed it, with Dandelion running ahead to reconnoiter. When Fiver said the iron tree was harmless they believed him. Strawberry had had a bad time."

I can't wait to really read this one! Ok...so tagging five people...Nymeth, Debi, Bellezza, Stephanie, Rhinoa! Have fun :)

And finally, I wanted to give big hugs to Eva for giving me the You Make My Day Award :) Her blog makes my day too. It's one of the many blogs that I visit every day always hoping that there's a new post...and there usually is. Partially out of laziness and partially because I can't decide who to pick, I can't pick 10 people to give this to right now! But I'm sure you all know how much I love visiting all of your blogs everyday and you really do all "Make My Day"! Seriously...the first thing I do after waking up is go down all of my live bookmarks and check for new posts and then I check (borderline obsessively) for new posts all day from you all. So have a great day guys!

Tomorrow, a review of The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World. Then a break from the rat...

I'm Back Again and Eva's Reading Meme

2008-01-28T22:13:00.000-06:00

I'm exhausted from playing the tourist in my own city this weekend, but we had so much fun. I know Megan had a great time going to all of our favorite "New Orleans places" and we had a tad bit too much fun on Bourbon Street Saturday night which left us in bed for most of the morning on Sunday, but that's what Bourbon Street's all about :p The trip was short, which sucked, but we definitely made the most out of it and turned it into a really good visit and hopefully I'll be reporting to Texas soon for some interviews and visiting time! And then all of this long distance stuff will finally be over with. That will indeed be a great day!

So I'm back now to book blogging after the weekend hiatus, and I thought I'd start with Eva's reading meme that I've been tagged for by quite a few people! Here it goes:

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?

You know, I thought and thought on this one and I really can't think of a particular book that I cringe away from. I can however think of a genre that I cringe away from....All that late 19th/early 20th century period piece literature. I know there's a literary name for that (someone help me out here, I'm not a lit major :p) . I'm hoping to remedy that by reading two Jane Austen books this year...we'll see how it goes. I've tried Edith Wharton twice and couldn't get into her. And I've just completely avoided anything else from that period despite people loving it. I do love Dickens, but his writing tended to focus on the every day person and real life stuff rather than high society...maybe I have the wrong idea of the genre, we'll see!

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?

I'd like to have a little back yard barbecue for my guests. Something where people could sit around, talk, pick on food and just mingle with one another. Maybe listen to some good music in the background...I'm currently listening to Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman on audiobook and forgot how great of a character Richard Mayhew is...he'd definitely be invited along for the BBQ. He seems like he'd be a nice guy to sit down and hang out with and he'd have some interesting tales to tell. I would LOVE to have a hobbit at a backyard BBQ while we're telling stories. And tell me they wouldn't enjoy an outdoor meal! The problem is, which one? I suppose I'd go with Frodo, although I've always loved Bilbo's story so much...I do have 4 editions of The Hobbit after all. And finally, I don't know how many of you are familiar with The Bone People by Keri Hulme, but it's an amazing Maori book and there's a sort of tragic character that I absolutely loved by the name of Kerewin. She's an awesome Maori native who I'd love to get to know more.

(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?

I'll prepare to be shot down by some, though I know by not all....but I would rather shoot myself in the foot than to ever have to read The Great Gatsby again. Call it a classic, but I couldn't stand it! Sorry to those who love it :O

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?

I've never blatantly admitted to having read a book that I haven't before, but I've hinted that I have when it comes to people talking about books or books being made into movies that didn't stick to the book and blah blah...This happened recently with Lord of the Flies actually (yes, I haven't read Lord of the Flies! I know, I need to remedy that!) I just nodded as if I knew exactly what they meant :p

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t?

No, it's usually the opposite...Sometimes I'll think that I hadn't ever read a book and then I'll go read it and think "wait a minute, I know this story". Not that this happens often, but it has. Last time this happened was with Tom Sawyer. I thought it was ashame that I had never read this, so I started reading it and realized that I had and it brought back a flood of memories of being a kid. Kinda neat experience actually.

You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (if you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead of personalise the VIP)

Definitely Lois Lowry's The Giver. It's an amazing book that really focuses on what's important in humanity and what makes human relationships special and what makes our bonds work...what makes our civilization work. And it shows how trying to aim for sameness,trying to erase our differences just doesn't work. The world needs diversity. Plus, if the VIP isn't a big reader, it's short :p

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?

Hi good fairy! Easy answer here..Japanese! I love Japanese literature and I'm really stuck in that state of mind right now with Bellezza's challenge. I've always had a fascination with the Japanese language though. I love their written characters, I love their spoken language, and there's even expression in the way that the characters are written. As Nymeth mentioned in her answer to this question, I would love read a Haruki Murakami book in it's original Japanese. As much as I enjoyed Norwegian Wood in it's English translation, I'm sure that much of it was lost. Same goes with The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima. I'd love to read it in it's original, and I could just tell when I was reading it that some of it had been "americanized". I guess it couldn't be helped.

A mischievious fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?

Well this fairy doesn't sound mischievious at all...it sounds like the good fairy again ;) This one's easy for me too...American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Yes it's chunky, but I could never tire of it. It's such an amazing book. Each page blew me away.

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?

The main thing that I've discovered from book blogging is reading outside of my genre of choice which was fantasy. I still LOVE my fantasy books and they're still my favorites, but looking at my list of books read last year, I read about half and half fantasy and non-fantasy which was a BIG change for me! I've also loved this community that I've discovered of people to talk to about books. I've never had this before and it's just amazing. It makes me all warm and fuzzy. Before it was just me and occasionally my classmates if I happened to be in a literature course. And that was back when I was an undergrad.

That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.

Oh-ho-ho-ho....how I wish...First of all, I was thinking...we would all have to have mansions in order to have our dream libraries...you do realize this? Of course it would be a decent sized room, but not huge...I'm going for cozy. And I'd like to have a nice domed ceiling with marble floors. Definitely Mahogany shelves from ceiling to floor with the rolling ladder. I'd love to have a few large windows that let plenty of sunlight in during the day with window seats and then soft yellow lighting for night time. And I'd love a fireplace! I would definitely need to have some plush chairs or sofas with an ottoman that were just right with a coffee table. An espresso machine would be nice along with a tea kettle, so I could have my choice of reading beverages. As far as the books go, I'm a fan of hardbacks or trade paperbacks and I'd need to have all of my authors entire collections :p preferably signed, first editions and I'd love to have the special editions (like Neil Gaiman's Hill House editions *drool*) Getting the idea yet?

And Now to tag four people!

Deslily @ Here, There, & Everywhere
Scott @ Booky Ooky
Quixotical
Bookfool!

This was an awesome meme, Eva :) I have to say that it's the most fun I've ever had filling one out...great job!

The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge by Harry Harrison

2008-01-25T00:16:00.000-06:00

This is just one of the most fun series I've read. Thanks to Carl, I discovered The Stainless Steel Rat last year and I have to say that I enjoyed the second book in the series even more. So far, these books are classic crime/detective/space adventure sci-fi at it's best. It's everything you can hope for in a nice solid throwback novel. Whenever I hold this book in my hands, I feel like I have something special there, like I'm being brought back to that golden age of sci-fi. So The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge was the perfect first read for Carl's Sci-Fi Experience.

In this sequel, James DiGriz, aka The Stainless Steel Rat, is sent on another mission by Inskipp, a colonel who made a somewhat honest man out of this master criminal in book one of the series...or as honest as you're going to get. His mission this time is huge...he has to stop the invasion of a planet by a war hungry civilization. The book is non stop adventure from cover to cover and when I say non stop, I mean it - it never slows down and never takes a breath. Just as the first book did, this has a very James Bond feel to it which I loved. The Rat has some very cool gadgets and some awesome escape plans and I loved all of the combat.

The characters are wonderful too! Angelina is back in this book and that's all I'm going to say on that front as she was a character I had questions about after the end of the first. I was happy to see her back and I think that Harrison has created one of the hottest characters ever with her!
James DiGriz is just a top notch character. He's smooth, he's sharp, he's skillful, he's a crook, he's a sharp-shooter. He really reminds me of James Bond in the future! Harrison has something special with him. I can see why Carl fell in love with this series with the adventures surrounded around this guy. And then there was Kraj...the military general...the villain. This guy was pure evil and I just couldn't stand him. Complete with torture devices, no emotions, no respect for anyone, etc. Perfect villain that you just loved to hate.

If you're looking for a good sci-fi read, this series comes highly recommended from me! The books are such quick and fulfilling reads. I was going to go on to something else after this, but decided to read one more book in the series first, so tomorrow I'm starting The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World. I love the titles of these books :p

Uh-ohhhhhh....

2008-01-24T17:00:00.000-06:00

I did a bad, bad thing....can you guess? Well, I didn't exactly go to a bookstore, but....I got my new Netflix movie in the mail today and they always attach this little advertisement thing to the envelope for some company or another which I usually throw away without even looking at. Well this one had books on it, so of course I looked!

Now I had talked about maybe changing my resolution to possibly limiting myself to one book a month :p Well this little ad worked perfectly! It was for this website called Zooba.com. Ever heard of it? It's awesome! It works kind of like Netflix. You set up a queue of books you want...a list, and enter your credit card info. You're automatically billed $9.95 a month and each month they send you the next book on your list! (But of course you don't have to return them like Netflix ;) And shipping is free! They don't have every book you could possibly want, but there's a decent selection and all hardcovers. Can't beat $9.95 for a hardcover! I'm getting Stephen King's new book, Duma Key for $9.95 with free shipping...very cool ;) So that will limit me to one book a month and I was even good by selecting books that I need for challenges. If you want to join, I suggest entering the website by typing the URL as zooba.com/netflix...by adding the "/netflix" you get your first book for only $4.98.

Here's the first 10 books I've added:

1. The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey (contains Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon)
2. Spirit Gate by Kate Elliot
3. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
4. Heroes: Saving Charlie by Aurie Wallington
5. Duma Key by Stephen King
6. After Dark by Haruki Murakami
7. The Android's Dream by John Scalzi
8. Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
9. Mary Modern by Camille DeAngelis
10. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Those should take me through my book buying until October (unless of course Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman and a few other authors come out with books ;) Speaking of...Neil Gaiman released the cover of The Graveyard book today...oooh!

Are There Really People This Ignorant Out There???

2008-01-24T14:21:00.001-06:00

I got this link in an email today and it angered me to no end! You can click here to read the article from Fox News. The same idiots who were protesting at soldiers' funerals are now protesting at Heath Ledger's memorial services because he played a gay man in Brokeback Mountain. And of course, the reasoning behind doing so is because they're Christian! Duh, of course! You know...it's idiot fundamentalists like this who horribly misrepresent religions and completely turn people away from religions. Do they think they are going to attract people to Christianity by doing this? What about preaching tolerance? I don't discuss my religious beliefs on this blog, so I'm not going to go into all that, but this really aggravated me and angered me to no end. They said some of the most hateful things in the article....I was literally shocked by some of what I read. Just sickening. The name of the fundamentalist group alone is disgusting. Anyway...I needed to vent about this. People like that don't further the human race. First they protest at the funerals of soldiers who have died for their country and now this...

Edit to add: Carole McDonnell (author of Wind Follower who sent me the article) wrote an excellent post on her blog about this same news article.

The Bleeding Dusk by Colleen Gleason

2008-01-22T14:29:00.000-06:00

I've been waiting patiently since early December to review this one, and now that there are only 2 more weeks until it's released, I think it's safe to release the review! Fans of Colleen's first two books in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles will not be disappointed with The Bleeding Dusk...not at all! It hit me with this book that the term "Chronicles" aptly describes this series. It's like one big work, with this middle book being the peak...well, so it seems.

There is quite a bit revealed in this book and I don't want to go too much into plot intricacies as this is the third book in a series, but it's good! It's dark, and ominous. It picks up where Rises the Night left off and opens with Max in Lilith's (queen vampire) lair. We then join Victoria, our heroine, in Rome where a carnival is taking place. Amidst the carnival, she has a chance encounter (or not so chance) with Beauregard, Sebastian's grandfather...a vampire. We soon learn of Akvan, a demon trying to break through the Door of the Alchemists to gain secrets that will restore him to his full power which would prove to be terrible for Rome and humanity in general. All of these stories intertwine as Victoria is faced with some of her toughest decisions yet. Who can she trust? Where does her heart lie? She is unsure as always of Max and she can never be sure where Sebastian's allegiances lie. On top of this, she is now Illa Gardella - head of the venators and is faced with a huge task. There's tons of weight on her shoulders in this one but she must find a way to balance it all.

Like I said in my review for Rises the Night, I really feel that Colleen grows as an author with each book that she writes. I loved the setting for this book. It was dark with a hint of melancholy and mystery throughout and I feel like it really echoed what Victoria must have felt as she went through all of this. This book slowed down a little bit more at the beginning and really took the time to build up the story. Relationships were explained and explored thoroughly and it made all the difference in the latter half of the book.

The finale of this book is every bit as heart pounding as "that scene" in Rises the Night. Just wait. There are questions answered that you never knew you had! I really just can't imagine what else Colleen could possibly have in store for us with the last two books, but while you're waiting for those unasked questions to be answered, pick this one up on February 5th and enjoy it as much as I did!

First Snow on Fuji by Yasunari Kawabata and One Down, Another Started

2008-01-21T21:44:00.000-06:00

My first thought after finishing First Snow on Fuji is that I think I'd like to try one of Yasunari Kawabata's novels. Like the other two books that I've read for the Japanese Reading Challenge, the language in this book was beautiful. Kawabata had a gift for capturing the fragility of human relationships and explores that in this collection of short stories. I thought that all of the stories were very well written, some I liked better than others, but I wanted more...as I so often do with short stories. Maybe I'm just not a short story guy, or maybe I'm reading the wrong authors. There are some authors that can deliver a short story perfectly for me and in fact, there were a few in this collection that worked perfectly for me. But the more I dive into short stories, the more I find that it's a true art form, to write a satisfying tale, a moral tale, a voyage, whatever the author sets to do, in so few pages.

My favorite of the stories in this collection was the first, titled This Country, That Country. It's the story of a young woman who reads a column in a local paper that talks about extravagant goings on in other countries (mostly European countries) and she reads an article about spouse swapping. She tucks the paper away after deciding not to show the article to her husband, a man who she is comfortable with and has a good life with, but there's no true passion. Her neighbors next door seem to have the perfect marriage and her neighbor's husband seems to be the perfect man. Her thoughts wander to what life would be life in another situation.

Another great story in the collection was Nature, which begins "To begin by saying that I heard the life story of a traveling actor at a spa is rather an old-fashioned narrative technique, but then...perhaps the story itself is old-fashioned..." And it is. I loved this story. It's the story of a man who has come to visit a spa where his deceased friend who was a writer used to stay. He finds there is an actor staying in the room where his friend used to always stay and goes to meet with him one night. They spend the night talking and the actor tells quite an interesting story of his past.

Silence was the last story that really stuck out to me. This was the story of an author who is now paralyzed, unable to write or speak. The narrator of the story goes to visit him, contemplating why he chooses not to use what little use he has left of his left hand. He could after all communicate, writing the Japanese characters of W for Water or T for Tea, but instead, he chooses to live out the rest of his days in silence. This was a beautifully contemplative piece and I really enjoyed it.

So as you can see, this one definitely had it's high points, but some of the other stories just didn't do it for me, or I just wanted a little more. But I'm glad I read this book. And with the end of this one, I'm done the Japanese Literature Challenge! My books read were:

The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
First Snow on Fuji by Yasunari Kawabata

I'd like to also fit in Yukio Mishima's Confessions of a Mask by the end of the month! Thanks again to Bellezza :) You rock!!!

------------------------------

So, I've finished one challenge, why not add another to the list! Becky's hosting another great challenge. How she manages to participate in and host all these challenges is beyond me. This one is the Margaret A. Edwards Reading Challenge and the challenge is to read 3-5 books between February 1st and June 1st by winners of the Margaret A. Edwards award. The award is given each year to an author who makes a lasting contribution in the field of young adult literature and this year it was given to Orson Scott Card!!! Guess who one of my authors will be? ;) So here's my list:

1. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (Deslily's review here) I can see that smile Pat ;)
2. Gifts by Ursula K. LeGuin
3. Something by Orson Scott Card

Coming Up For Air

2008-01-21T14:33:00.000-06:00

Gasp! I'm still alive...After a very exhausting five days of work, I've managed to get in 8 hours of sleep finally and I actually have a day off! I'm constantly talking about looking for a job and being out of work, but I do still have a job, it's just not directly in my field, working towards a licensure. I'm back to working with the family of kids with disabilities that I was working with before and I worked a very long weekend with them as their mom went out of town on a retreat. At least my check will look good!

I'm spending today recovering and will finish First Snow on Fuji by Yasunari Kawabata which will officially end the Japanese Reading Challenge for me! Yay, first challenge of the year completed! It's my least favorite of the 3 books that I've read for the challenge, but that doesn't mean that it was bad at all. It's a book of short stories, and I still have two left. I'll save the review for later though. This has been an awesome challenge and I owe huge thanks to Bellezza. I'll definitely be reading more J-Lit this year ;)

I crumbled last night and bought a book :O But it's not a novel...don't you just love the way I justify things. After Carl's last Friday Favorite's post, I had to go out and buy Spectrum 14! And it really is absolutely amazing. I've never seen the Spectrum books before, so I was blown away by it. It's quite overwhelming actually...there's just so much great art in them. Highly recommended. So I'm still kinda good on my New Year's Resolution....still haven't added to the TBR stack...just the to be stared at stack. It's only a matter of time...

I apologize for being a horrible friend to everyone and being a stranger on blogs. I'll be back in the swing of things now that the weekend from hell is over. Good news! Megan's coming in town on Friday and staying til Monday :) She's coming with her roommate for a little bit of Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras isn't actually until February 5th this year, but the parades have already begun and I can't wait til this weekend...yay!

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

2008-01-18T00:06:00.000-06:00

Just in case you can't tell by the length of time it took me to read A Clash of Kings, this book is quite an epic! It's the second book in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series and picks up where A Game of Thrones left off. I read A Game of Thrones last year and believe it or not, I actually got through this one faster. That's by no means attributed to it being a dull read, it's not a dull read in the least bit...but it's mighty involved.

This series is certainly considered high fantasy, but as I said in my review of A Game of Thrones, it broke the barriers of what I thought high fantasy to be. I've always seen high fantasy as focusing mainly on the quest or the war and not so much on the characters. Martin balances these aspects of the stories perfectly and creates an amazing cast of characters that are all intricately carved. He's created some of my favorite characters in modern fantasy, Daenerys, mother of dragons, Bran, a young heir to a king who is disabled and unable to walk, Jon Snow, a bastard child of a king removed from his siblings and serving with others who have been stripped from their families, and Arya, the daughter of a king who defies gender boundaries and seeks to make a name for herself. For those who have read this, can you tell I like the Starks?

A Clash of Kings picks up as a war between four kings is beginning. The war will decide who is the one true ruler of the Seven kingdoms. There are tensions between the many families involved and even tighter tensions within some of the families involved. There is treachery, betrayal, sorcery, jealousy. It really is a thrilling ride. Each family is willing to stop at nothing to claim what they think is their right to the throne and no family is willing to form a truce or share a throne. Whatever chance there was a peace is slowing being destroyed by the atrocities committed out of spite and anger for past crimes.

Each chapter begins with a characters name and the chapter focuses on that characters story line, though other characters' storylines' interweave within the chapters. I love this way of telling the story and it works perfectly for this series. His characters are created so well that there really wasn't a single character whose chapters I didn't look forward to. Though there were some that I would be more excited about than others.

I also loved the scenery, the battle scenes, the cultures, the history, the castles, the food, the palaces...all of this stuff that he created. He put so much detail, description and effort into this series. Really an excellent job.

Martin's writing just amazes me. As I read this book I just remained amazed by the enormous task of putting something of this scale together. He's a genius writer and this is really becoming one of my favorite series out there. And there's dragons in it now :) If you're a fan of fantasy books and haven't read these books, I highly recommend that you pick these up. I'd consider them a must read even if you don't think you like high fantasy...I certainly didn't think I would. I'll be reading book 3, A Storm of Swords soon, though not right away. I need a break from these massive books.

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

2008-01-17T12:36:00.000-06:00

Well here I was thinking that I had absolutely nothing to post about and Nymeth reminded me that I still owed a review for Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. In all honesty, I delayed this one a bit because I didn't think I could do it justice. And I probably still can't, but I'll give it a try. If I would've had time to let this one sink in for a bit before I posted my top 12 list of the year, it probably would've made it on to the list as it was my last read of 2007. It's characters and language haunted my mind and the book is still very fresh in my head...floating about in there somewhere. I've heard many people say this about Murakami, that his books stay with you, and this is no exception.

This is my first experience with Murakami, so I can't compare it to anything else written by him, but from what I understand, it's quite different from many of his other novels. I've heard that there's a bizarre aspect to quite a few of his books that's not so prevalent in this one. This book is mainly a love story and a quite beautiful and tragic one at that. It's set in Tokyo and other parts of Japan in the 60's and follows a young college student by the name of Toru who is in love with Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend who died in an accident a few years back. There relationship begins with silent walks around Japan, both of them recalling thoughts in their own minds of their pasts with their lost friend and their relationship eventually blooms into something more than just a friendship. But a night of intimacy with Toru reveals a tortured side to Naoko and she leaves Tokyo to examine her life and her problems. They exchange letters back and forth leaving Toru unsure of where anything is going between him and Naoko and he isolates himself, retreating even from the one amazing, unique girl that he's met, Midori, who's willing to do anything to be with him.

This is not a happy book, but it's a beautiful book, a serene book. The Japanese have a true gift in their story telling that echoes in aspects of their culture. I always get a sense of peace when I'm reading a Japanese novel or short story and this was no exception. As tragic and lost as these characters seemed at times, I always saw hope for them, always had a vision of calm. This is a book that will definitely pull at your heartstrings and draw you into the characters. Murakami really has a gift for making his characters real. I kept thinking that this must be somewhat autobiographical of his own experiences in the 60's, but the afterword says that it is not at all, that he actually had quite a boring life in the 60's and put nothing of himself in this novel. If that's true, he's extremely perceptive of other people.

It's also been said that this is the most erotic of his novels, and there are quite a few sex scenes in here and they're extremely voyeuristic. This goes back to him making this such a personal book. At first I thought that the dialogue was really awkward during the sex scenes and it was going to be a complaint of mine, but then I realized that what was awkward was just the fact that he was including sexual dialogue where I didn't expect it...it was reality and a real intimate look into these characters lives.

This book was extremely well written and a great introduction to Murakami in my opinion and I'd definitely recommend it as a starting point to anyone else looking to pick something up by him. It's also only 296 pages which is short compared to many of his other books! I think I'll read Kafka on the Shore next...Both Nymeth and Jean Pierre have written great reviews on that one. I just want the British cover! It's so much better than the US one.

And I think I'll finally finish A Clash of Kings today! Yay! And then it's on to First Snow on Fuji which will fulfill my 3 books for Bellezza's Japanese Literature Challenge :) I'm still going to try to read Mishima's Confessions of a Mask though before the end of the month!

Winner Time!

2008-01-16T15:27:00.000-06:00

This is going to be an awfully short post, because life has been boring and I really don't have much to say...but I do have 2 winners for the book giveaways!

The Time Traveler's wife goes to Ikkinlala!

and

Wind Follower goes to CJ!

You can send me your email addresses at chrisa511(at)gmail(dot)com and I'll get them out to you ASAP. Hope everyone's having a good day and congrats to the winners!!!

TV & Movie Day And Megan's New Art Blog

2008-01-14T01:40:00.000-06:00

Today was very much a lazy Sunday. Well not entirely lazy...I did manage to go walking 2 miles again! But aside from that, I sat in front of the TV and watched one Manning lose and another win! I'm talking about football for those that don't follow. The Mannings are very special to us in New Orleans as they grew up down here and went to high school down here. In fact they went to high school right across the street from the coffee shop that I used to work at where I met Megan. So it was very sad to see Peyton Manning get knocked out of the playoffs today, but it put a huge smile on my face to see Eli win! I'm hoping that he goes all the way and takes home a Super Bowl ring this year! Sure, I would've liked to see the Patriots finish undefeated, but I'm all about the Giants now :p Of course, the Giants have one more game to go before they get there.

After that was Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles!! Anyone else see it? I've been looking forward to this show for so long and I was not disappointed. I'm not a huge Terminator fan. I like the movies well enough, but I'm not a die hard. But the first episode of the show was great. What had me most excited about the show is that Summer Glau (River from Firefly) is in it and she's absolutely fantastic! Kyle from Roswell's in it too! It was action packed from beginning to end and we get another hour tomorrow night. This looks like one that I can get into. The acting was good, the special effects were good, and the plot looks to be good. I just hope that the story remains good and that they take it in the right direction.

A few weeks ago, Neil Gaiman wrote about seeing Guillermo del Toro's new movie, The Orphanage and wrote that it was one of the best ghost stories he had seen in years. I had no idea when it came out and just assumed that whenever it did come out, I would have to wait until it came to DVD as nothing foreign or independent ever gets released here. Well I hopped over to Carl's blog today and he had an excellent review of the movie up! I got so excited that it was out thinking that I wouldn't have to wait long for it to come out on DVD. I decided to check to see if by any chance it was showing here and it was! So I went and saw it tonight and it was just amazing. Del Toro is one of the best directors out there right now. He creates some of the most beautiful and haunting films that just etch into the mind instantly. And I love the storytelling aspects of his movie. Every movie is a story, but del Toro tells stories within stories. This movie was so touching and endearing, yet thrilling and chilling. And it was just filmed perfectly. The acting was amazing and I'm ready to see it all over again. Don't be surprised if you see this one up for best foreign film. In fact, I'd be willing to bet it's an easy contender.

And finally, I wanted to let everyone know that Megan's started a new blog for her art projects and if you're a fan of art you may want to check it out. I've had the pleasure of admiring her stuff for years and I think it's great that she's sharing it with others now. I think she's mostly putting up her collages and painting stuff for now, but hopefully when drawings and art stuff for the book starts happening, that stuff goes up too!

Driving Around With The Dream King

2008-01-12T23:06:00.000-06:00

I got all excited today about going to use the library for the first time today in 2008! After my last post, I had a few suggestions that I read something shorter to break the monotony of this chunkster that I'm in the middle of. Then I read this wonderful review of The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain that Becky wrote, so I was going to go get it at my library. Then I started thinking of other stuff I wanted to check out ;) Oh yes...this could just as much of a hindrance to my TBR shelf as the bookstore, but at least I'm not adding permanently to the TBR shelf. I was also going to check out Alice in Sunderland since I've been dying to read it since Nymeth's review and I've been wanting to listen to Neil Gaiman's American Gods on Audiobook for ages, so I was going to get that too! Well needless to say, I'm so disappointed with our library system here. We have 12 libraries in our parish...yes 12 libraries that I can use my card at!! Not a single one of them carries any of those three items...not even the Mark Twain book! I searched the online catalog and I called. No luck. It makes me so mad!

Well after that, I had a craving for American Gods on audiobook and I just happen to have a brand new shiny iPod that I treated myself to last weekend ;) So I went to iTunes, and of course they don't carry it. But I did find the author's preffered, complete unabridged text of Neverwhere read by Neil Gaiman and bought it! It's an audio book, so it's fair game. It's not taking up shelf room and I listen to it while I drive or walk, so it's not cutting into other reading time :p I am in love with this thing so far and I'm only 2 chapters in! I've always loved Neverwhere. It's my favorite of Gaiman's after American Gods. I've never really been sold on audio books before, but now I see how they can work. To hear an author read their own work is truly an amazing experience. I didn't want to get out of my car. It's wonderful to hear the story exactly as Gaiman intended it, exactly as he saw the scenes and created the characters. And I could just listen to Gaiman's voice for hours....as I will be because it's nearly 13 hours long. Seriously, this man has a voice that is meant for reading things aloud and you can hear his passion for his work in his voice. It makes me appreciate his work that much more. Carl has been plugging this one for quite some time and I don't know why it took me so long to buy it, but I'm so glad I did. I add my recommendation. Neverwhere is an incredibly unique, dark, eerie, quirky story and the audiobook adds a whole new dimension to it...and it's great to revisit the story again.

Making Good On Resolutions

2008-01-11T21:05:00.000-06:00

I walked today. Resolution #1...well, it doesn't have to be #1, but it's one of them, is to lose weight! I was going to go to the gym, but I wanted some scenery, so I went to the park instead and walked along the trail. Now my shins are killing me after walking just 2 miles...pathetic :p I totally got my ass kicked by a woman pushing a stroller in front of me. She just took off. But it was a pretty day and I really enjoyed my walk and I'm going to make a habit out of it. I'll save my gym membership for rainy days and when I'm feeling motivated enough to do some weight lifting.

Resolution #2: I went to a book store today and didn't buy a book for myself! This is the third time this year that I did this! I bought The Time Traveler's Wife for the book giveaway since I had Border's Bucks, but nothing for myself. It was really quite comical. I was in the bookstore for literally under a minute so as not to tempt myself. Walked in the doors, straight to the "N's for Niffenegger" and straight to the checkout and out the door. Didn't look at anything else. By the way, you still have until January 15th to enter the giveaway's for Time Traveler's Wife and Wind Follower. Just comment on This Post and let me know you want in.

Resolution #3: Find a job that will make me happy. I applied for a couple of jobs in Austin today that I'm really excited about. They're not the greatest paying jobs in the world, but they're comparable but to what I was making before and benefits are paid in full by the company which makes a big difference. If I have to get a second job to make things work, I will...hmm, maybe a book store on the weekend ;) I had this plan that popped in my head to apply for grad school for my PhD in Austin at UT, and I got all excited about that only to find out that the deadline for applications was January 1st. But I'm not letting it get me down too much. I'm just going to start getting my application together for next year. Not that my chances are that great of getting in, but I have to at least try. It would be amazing.

As far as reading goes, I feel like an utter failure so far this year. I made a horrible mistake by starting with A Clash of Kings, the second book in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. It's not that it's a bad book, I'm enjoying it...it's just that it's so frickin long and a slow read! It's the 11th and I'm still only 350 pages into my first book of the year...400 pages left to go still! There's so many words on each page...it's one of those :/ But January always seems to be a slow month for me. Last January, I only read one book...Lisey's Story by Stephen King. So if that happens again, it won't be a total failure. But I need to at least fit in one more book for Bellezza's Japanese Challenge because I'm determined to finish that one!

For the rest of the night, I'm watching Masterpiece Theatre's version of Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca. Wasn't crazy about it at first, but I'm about half way through it now and I'm enjoying it now. It's pretty faithful to the book, though there are things that were left out. At least no liberties have been taken yet. Though I would've liked to hear those famous first lines spoken at the beginning...

A Post Of Things...

2008-01-09T22:29:00.000-06:00

I was keeping this one under wraps for a few days because I didn't know if it was really going to happen, but it looks like it will now. You've heard me rave about Brandon Mull's Fablehaven books on my site before. If you haven't read them yet, I can't recommend enough that you go out and pick up copies of his first two books in the series. They're written for children/young adults, but can certainly be enjoyed by readers of all ages. They're a couple of my favorite young adult books to be written in a long time. It's fantasy/fairy folk/mythical creature story telling adventure delight all told with a complete air of pure fun. Well about a month ago, I got an email from Brandon Mull's publisher asking me if I would be interested in reviewing the third book which is due out on April 8th. It's called Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague. Now it looks like not only am I going to get to review it, but I'm getting an interview with Brandon Mull! Needless to say, I'm thrilled. So I'm letting everyone know in case you have any questions you'd like to ask. The interview is going to focus mostly on the third book in the series, but if you have any questions for him (I already have a couple from Deslily) I'll be more than happy to try to fit them in and see if I can get some answers ;)

I'm also back to trying to do a little bit of editing on my own book, A Sunset in Nowhere, that I wrote for NaNoWriMo and I'm really excited about it now! Why, you might ask? It's become a collaboration with Megan! I want to do a Stardust type of thing with it...the Neil Gaiman/Charles Vess version of Stardust that is. Megan is an amazing artist and she's done a comic in the past with a friend of ours as well as quite a few of her own creation. It's one of the many things that first attracted me to her. So she has my book now (in it's god-awful first draft) and she's going to start drawing some scenes that will be interlaced throughout the book. I can't wait to actually see some of my characters!! I have a few examples here of some of the pieces that she's given me, but none of her characters. I wish I had them to show you! The first two are a series of "hand drawings" that she's done for me...the first for our 1 year anniversary and the second for another anniversary. The third is a little Buddha that she drew me for Christmas this year. My photos don't do any of these justice.

And finally, I had to go download "Oh, you pretty thing" by David Bowie today and put it on my iPod because I couldn't stop singing it after I got my copy of Coraline in the mail from Subterranean Press! It's by far the most beautiful edition I've ever bought from Subterranean. I'm just blown away by it. The new McKean art is gorgeous, the Irish puppet production photos are incredible and it's signed by Gaiman and McKean :D And I got a really early copy...number 174 of 1000. There are still some copies left for sale on the website...go get it!!!

Geaux Tigers! And Sweet Bloggers...

2008-01-07T23:07:00.001-06:00

It's official!!! LSU won the BCS Championship game tonight and the city is going nuts! I'm so happy for LSU, my dear alma mater. It couldn't have happened to a better group of guys and a better group of fans. Tiger stadium is like nothing you'll find anywhere else...the fans and the players are just electric and you can just feel the energy driving around Baton Rouge and it's all been transported down here to New Orleans this week! I went to school on LSU's campus in New Orleans for my Master's and after Katrina, we were transported to the Baton Rouge campus and during football season it was just incredible. I'm so proud of the team for winning tonight! Bourbon Street will be nuts tonight! We went down to the quarter for lunch yesterday and ended up turning around because we spent an hour just trying to find parking...and we were on the outskirts of the quarter which usually isn't too bad parking wise. Needless to say, I won't be braving it down there tonight :p

As for sweet bloggers, I got a package in the mail today and a card in the mail from two different bloggers! Both unexpected! The first was from Deslily. She sent me her copy of The Dragon Quintet which she just read not too long ago with a very sweet note. It has a short story by Orson Scott Card in it and she knew I'd enjoy it. Thank you so much, Pat :) You're taking care of me, I see, since I made a resolution not to buy books! (more on that in a second) The second thing was a card from Bookfool and inside were three beautiful homemade bookmarks with her photos which I love so much!! And one of them is a poppet pic :) Thanks Bookfool! They're already being put to use. You people are just too nice!!

So an update to the no buying books resolution. NO, I haven't bought any books! But I've decided that it's a totally unreasonable resolution. So here's a more reasonable one. There are books that I had already planned on buying. For instance...if a new book by Orson Scott Card or Neil Gaiman comes out, or a new book in a series I'm reading, I'll make an exception...but no more impulse buying and just shopping the shelves. I'm thinking maybe like 10 books for the whole year. Aside from that, I like Carl's idea of using the library more, and I'm going to do that. For challenge books that I don't have, I'm going to get them from the library! Sounds good. Proud of me Darla??? ;)

And another reminder that if you haven't signed up for the book giveaways for The Time Traveler's Wife and Wind Follower, go to The Catch Up Post and sign up!

Yep...2 More Challenges

2008-01-06T20:11:00.000-06:00

First a reminder...don't forget to sign up on my previous post, "The Catch Up Post...", to be entered for the drawings for The Time Traveler's Wife and Wind Follower. You have until January 15th. Sticky posts always bug me, so I'll just keep reminding people until then :p

So I figured that I can sign up for these 2 more challenges and I won't have to buy any more books which fit with my New Years resolution of reading from the shelves. These were just too cool and I couldn't pass them up!

The first is Foxy Writer's Mythopoeic Challenge which runs from January 1st through December 31st. Here are my picks:

1. Watership Down by Richard Adams
2. The Wood Wife by Terri Windling
3. Someplace to be Flying by Charles de Lint
4. Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle
5. Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black
6. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
7. The Stolen Child by Keith Donahue

The second challenge is Joy's A to Z challenge which is just too much fun to pass up :p It's basically a fill in the blanks challenge. You have to read a book whose title starts with each letter of the alphabet and an author whose name starts with each letter of the alphabet...52 books total. So you can just plug in books as you go! I love this one.

The Catch Up Post...

2008-01-05T21:06:00.000-06:00

I'm back! I had a great time in Texas as you might have imagined and the visit seemed entirely too short, but it always does. A week just doesn't cut it. But we made the best of our time and did lots of fun stuff. What little weight I had managed to lose, I'm sure I put back on as we seemed to eat out a lot, but that's one of our favorite things to do :p We saw Sweeney Todd...twice!...and bought the soundtrack! Go see it now! I have to agree with Neil Gaiman in saying that it may just be my favorite Tim Burton film now. It was just amazing. And who knew Johnny Depp could sing so well? My favorite part of the movie was the super preppy girl sitting behind us announcing after the closing scene "I'm never watching that again!" :p Aside from that the trip consisted of just spending time together, going out and doing things we enjoy doing together...just being together. It was perfect.

There's lots of decisions to be made in the future. The job scene is bleak in New Orleans...very bleak, and Megan has lots of friends now and a good job in Texas. I have a few leads for jobs in Austin which is a beautiful city and an hour away from Megan as opposed to 7 hours away...so we'll see where all this leads. Things just need to change from the way they are.

So our New Year was spent together again as we've always made that work since Katrina. And I wanted to thank all of you for the wonderful New Year wishes that you sent back to me. Sorry I didn't respond back to everyone like I normally do :/ I fell behind on comments from being away and then it just got overwhelming. But I read each and every one of them and it made me smile to think of how many great people I've met in just a year.

And yes...it's been a year!! January 3rd was actually my 1 year Blogiversary :) It's been a great year of blogging and I've made some great friends, read some great books, and have really just made some great opportunities too. After Rhinoa's mention of Buy a Friend a Book Week and her giveaway, and Eva's giveaway for her Blogiversary, I thought I'd do my own! So leave me a comment by lets say January 15th letting me know that you want in on the drawing and you can be entered for the books. I'll do two: one for Buy a friend a book week and one for my blogiversary. You can be entered for both or just one or the other if only one interests you...just let me know so that I know which ones to sign you up for.

The Buy A Friend a Book Week Book is Carole McDonnell's Wind Follower. It's a great book that I just reviewed it a few weeks ago. I've gotten to know her over the past couple of months and she's a wonderful person as well as a great author. I'm giving this book away because I think everyone should read it ;)

The Blogiversary book is The Time Traveler's Wife. It was my number 1 pick from last year and my review is here. Since it was my top read, I figured it would be the most appropriate to give away for the blogiversary.

So have your pic at those two :)

And finally, I've been nominated for an award!! I don't think I've ever been nominated for anything, to be honest, but Carole McDonnell, author of the above mentioned Wind Follower, nominated me for Best Review Site on the Preditors and Editors Poll! How cool is that?? You can vote by going to this page. Voting closes on January 14th or 15th depending on what page you look at. There are a few other cool review sites that I like too, but they only let you vote once which sucks. There are some other awesome categories too. I nominated Carole's book under Science Fiction/Fantasy novels, so please go vote for her! I'd love to see her book win.

That's all for now folks. Back to reading A Clash of Kings now which is good so far, but a little slow to start. Of course I'm only 100 pages in to this massive thing though. What's with everyone reading chunksters right now? Good to be back!

Happy New Year Everyone!

2007-12-31T12:44:00.000-06:00

Greetings from Texas! Just wanted to pop in a quick post to wish everyone a very happy New Year!! 2007 has certainly had it's ups and downs for me, but one of the biggest ups of all has been starting this blog and getting to know all of you. Hope that you enjoy your night whatever you decide to do and have a wonderful 2008! Look forward to spending it with you all talking books and all that other good stuff.

I did manage to sneak in a visit to Half Price Books today while Megan is at work and pick up a few bargains! My last book buys for a while hopefully as one of my big resolutions is to read what's on my shelf at home and not buy so many books. It really is sinful how many books I bought last year! So my last book buying splurge consisted of Gifts by Ursula LeGuin, The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri (which I had never heard of, but looks great), The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, I am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak, and the second Varjak Paw book by S.F. Said. Not bad, eh?

Sorry I've been a stranger on everyone's blogs lately! I'll be playing catch up when I get back if not sooner. See y'all then!

2007 In Review!

2007-12-27T14:40:00.000-06:00

It's that time of the year. The first time for me, time to do the blog wrap up for the year in books! This will most probably be my last post for the year. I'm going to Texas on Saturday to see Megan and I'll be there until January 4th. Though I'll have my laptop with me, so I may squeeze some posts in.

So without further ado lets start with the totals. I'm not quite finished Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood, but I only have 60 pages left, so I'm adding it in to the totals. I'll probably finish it tonight and may squeeze a review in, so you may see another post from me yet ;) Then I'll start George R.R. Martin's A Clash of Kings but definitely won't finish that in time for the end of December which means that I won't complete Joy's Second's Challenge :( But I still plan on reading the book!

So, Total books read in 2007: 78
Total pages read in 2007: 22,235
Non-Fiction: 4 books
Short Story Collections: 5 books
Graphic Novels: 2 books
Picture books: 1 book
Novels: All the rest! 66 books

I'd like to try to balance that out a little more next year though that probably won't happen. I'd just rather read novels than anything else. Though I will certainly read more Graphic Novels next year thanks to the Graphic Novel Challenge! You can find a more detailed list of all the books I read over at my other blog, A Pile of Books.

Challenges Completed: 5 (Banned Books Challenge, Once Upon A Time Challenge, RIP II Challenge, Classics Challenge, Newberry Challenge)
Favorite Challenge: Once Upon A Time Challenge!

And now for "the list". I had every intention of making this a Top Ten list but I honestly could not cut this down any smaller! I just couldn't throw out any more books. So it's a Top Twelve list :p It was a top 16 list, lol. Here they are (Click on the book title for my full review):

12. Rises the Night by Colleen Gleason: The second book in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles. Who would've ever thought that I'd be putting a romance series in my top list! I loved Colleen's first book and I was lucky enough to get an ARC of her newest book in the series which is coming out in February. The new book is great too and I'll have a review up closer to the release date, but it's this book that really grabbed me and will keep me reading through the rest of the series. You definitely don't have to be a fan of the romance novel to enjoy her books. My heart was beating a mile a minute during some of the suspenseful moments of this book!

11. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline: I was just captivated by this book. DiCamillo has a true gift when it comes to writing books for children. Her books handle real issues head on, but handle them in a way that is relatable and truly touching. She's undoubtedly offered hope to millions of kids and grown ups around the world. This story of an elegant and prudish doll learning what it means to love and care for another is heartbreaking and heartwarming and is beautifully presented.

10. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy: I hadn't expected this one to turn up on this list at all! This is a very short novella and my first experience with Tolstoy. I read it for the classics challenge and was blown away by it. It's a remarkable meditation on death and the introduction gave some very interesting insights into Tolstoy's life.

9. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova: Many of you have read this one and I'm sure you understand why this one is on my Top 12 list. More than anything, I loved the landscapes of this book. Kostova painted a wonderful, eerie picture throughout the entire book and I wanted to visit every place that her characters did. It was a fascinating spin on an old tale and I found myself looking out of the corner of my eye for shadows while reading this one.

8. The Kesterwood Trilogy by P.A. Neal: I'm sure that many of you are saying "what the hell is that?" right now. P.A. Neal is an author that many of you may know simply as Deslily :) I thought I had to keep this one under wraps for awhile, but we've been talking openly about it. Deslily asked me if I would read a fantasy trilogy that she wrote and I was honored. What I didn't expect was to fall in love with this epic fantasy adventure as much as I did. I wish it was published so that others could enjoy it like I have. It has the endearing feel of The Hobbit in my opinion and there's dragons and wizards and so much more! Her characters have stuck with me for months now and I find myself thinking of them quite often. One of the best experiences of the year :)

7. Wind Follower by Carole McDonnell: I've just recently reviewed this one and it took me by surprise! I wish Carole all the success in the world because she deserves it. It's rare that you come across a story as well-written and as beautiful as this one. Her characters were so unique and the world and the cultures and tribes that she created were just phenomenal. This book reminded me what I love about high fantasy as I hadn't read a true fantasy novel since George R.R. Martin's A Game of Throne's in May. Carole is another author that I've had the privilege to talk to over email and she has an extremely kind soul. I can't wait to see where her career takes her.

6. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly: Another one that was much more than what I was expecting. I picked this one up on a whim mostly because I liked the cover. I knew instantly that I would like it when it began "Once upon a time" and then books starting whispering to the main character. By the end of this novel I had experienced every emotion possible and was recommending it to everyone I knew!

5. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier: I guess this was the year of being surprised. This one took me by surprise too! I got lost in this book and didn't want it to ever end. I was enjoying this one so much and then when the twist came started enjoying it even more which I didn't think was possible. I definitely plan on reading some more Du Maurier in the future. She had a gift for creating vivid images in her readers' minds. At least in my mind, she did. I almost don't want to see a film version of this book because I have my own picture of Manderley and the wall of Rhododendrons.

4. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: I read this one on a whim and enjoyed it, but didn't realize how much I truly loved it until a few days after I finished it and it had sat on my mind. I started thinking back on the beautiful Columbian landscapes that Marquez had painted in my mind and the scent of Almond trees. It was a beautiful love story set in a perfect setting. This one will stay with me for a long time as well. I love the closing scene of this one.

3. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield: The storytelling aspect of this book won me over from the beginning and it was written just perfectly. Setterfield invented some of the most bizarre yet loveable characters and I just want to revisit this one again and again. I see this book in shades of gray with hints of color if that makes sense...kind of like a Tim Burton film. Definitely one of the best books I read this year and one of the best books I've read of all times. Can't wait to see where her career goes.

2. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin: I found a new favorite fantasy series with this one. I wasn't sure about it at the beginning. I would get hooked and then I'd be a bit iffy, but eventually I was so immersed in it that I was infatuated with every characters story line. This book is phenomenal and I recommend it to any lover of fantasy, even if you don't think you like "high fantasy" books. I'm getting ready to start A Clash of Kings and I can't tell you how excited I am about that!

1. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: There are no words to aptly describe how I feel about this book. I wrote a lengthy review to try, but you just have to read it to see how phenomenal of a book it is. Niffenegger achieve what few author's achieve with this book and really captured the essence of her characters' souls in this book. Simply amazing and easily in my top books of all time. I'm so glad I read this one and can't wait to read her next novel. She can take all the time she wants to write it! I'll still be here waiting.

Can't wait to read everyone else's lists. I've had the best time blogging my books with you all this year and it really has been the greatest pleasure in the world to meet everyone. I would've never read half of these books if it wouldn't have been for you guys! Happy reading in 2008!!!

A Few Of My Favorite (Christmas) Things

2007-12-26T13:33:00.000-06:00

I love these posts that people do, so I figured I'd do my own! A post all about cool Christmas gifts :) Here's a picture of all the cool gifts I got, but I just remembered that I forgot to include two of my favorites...duh! First not pictured is the new Nintendo DS Lite Zelda Triforce edition! Yes, it's gold with the triforce on the outside of it and comes with the new Zelda game and it rocks! And the second not pictured is Lynne Fleweling's The Bone Doll's Twin which I've been wanting to read forever! I'll be reading that one for the Cardathon Challenge. Here's my other faves:

From top left to right:

What Therapists Don't Talk About and Why: This book's been on my wishlist for a long time now. It's all about the taboos of therapy that you just don't see discussed in textbooks and in other places. Looking forward to this one!

Book's I've Read, A Reader's Journal: I've always wanted one of these journals! I think I'm going to start getting one of these for each year. It'll be fun to keep all my books for '08 in here. It asks questions about each book that you read. Very cool!

Eternals by Neil Gaiman: :D I've been dying for this one! This will most certainly be a late addition to Dewey's Graphic Novel Challenge. Big surprise here that I got a Neil Gaiman book, right?

The 2008 Barnes and Noble Desk Diary: I love their desk diaries...they're the best and I always try to get one. Top notch and in my opinion at a great price! Great gift for readers.

Where's Neil When You Need Him CD: I've been wanting this one for awhile too! This is such a cool CD. It's all songs written by artists (lots of goth/industrial bands) that pay tribute to Neil Gaiman's stories and characters. Closed off by a Tori Amos track!

Planet Earth DVD set: I was thrilled when I opened this one! This is one of my favorite TV series to be produced in a long time. Discovery Channel does amazing things and this is one of the best they've done in a long time.

The Little Prince: Another book that I've been wanting for ages. Can you believe I've never read this one? I'm glad to finally have it in my library!

A beautiful leather journal!: My sister got me this journal and it's gorgeous. It's made of sueded leather and it's just perfect. Love it!

And there were giftcards to book stores and coffee shops. I was overwhelmed! I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas. The gifts were nice, but better than those was the time spent with family and the smiles shared throughout the day. I could've done without the migraine last night, but that's gone now, so it's all good. Now it's time to lose the 10 pounds that I no doubt gained yesterday! And start reading these books!

Merry Christmas To All!

2007-12-23T23:21:00.000-06:00

The past few days have been busy, have they not? It seems that everybody is tied up in Christmas festivities, be it shopping, get-togethers, reading, wrapping, etc. and I'm definitely one of those people! I doubt that I'll squeeze in another post before Christmas, so I wanted to take the time to wish you all a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays! Each and every one of you who I've gotten to know through this blog over the past year has come to mean more than you know to me and you've shown me that friendship moves beyond physical barriers. To me, a big part of the holidays is celebrating that friendship and connections made throughout the year, and you're all in my thoughts :) I look forward to another wonderful year with y'all and hope that all of you have a wonderful Christmas with your families!

Of course, I can't write a post without mentioning books! I read Cornelia Funke's When Santa Fell to Earth today and it was such a magical book. I wish I would've read it a few weeks ago because I would've gotten it for all the little kids that I know so that they could've read it before Christmas. It was a very different Christmas book and so endearing. I loved it!

Niklas Goodfellow is the last real Santa. Christmas has been hi-jacked by an evil-Santa by the name of Goblynch who is all about making money and giving kids video game consoles. The old Santas (the kinds with elves who make old fashioned, endearing wooden toys) have been um...obliterated...and turned into chocolate (killed in a not so scary way for kids I guess :/) and Niklas is the only one left. Niklas is young and scruffy looking, not what you'd picture a Santa to look like at all. But he has a heart of gold! During a storm, his reindeer Twinklestar (who loves marzipan) becomes afraid and breaks away from Niklas' caravan leaving him abandoned in the middle of a suburban town. Niklas befriends a couple of children by the name of Ben and Charlotte and they work together to keep the true meaning of Christmas and the last Santa alive. The cast of characters is completed by 2 endearing angels, a slew of hilariously grumpy elves, and some terrifying nutcrackers! Such a great little book!

This will probably wrap up my Christmas posts. Well, I'm sure you'll get a full report on which books I managed to scoop up for Christmas ;) And then I should have the year in review post up soon! Have a great one everyone!

A Very Christmas-y Post

2007-12-19T16:31:00.000-06:00

Well the weather outside sure is frightful...the temperatures have gone back up again and I'm back to shorts and sandals. It's officially 75 degrees right now in New Orleans and that's a cool down from earlier. But we're supposed to get some cool weather coming on Sunday night and it's supposed to be down right cold again for Christmas Eve and Christmas! Yay! But the heat has not spoiled my Christmas mood! No indeed!

I awoke this morning...er, or noonish, to a package waiting on my doorstep from Santa in the form of Robin from A Fondness of Reading, one of my absolute favorite bloggers who is my Secret Santa :) I was overwhelmed by the package she put together for me! She had a great little card to accompany this set of gifts wishing me and my family a Merry Christmas. All of the gifts come from her region of the US, up in the Northwest in Washington and they're just perfect! I love candles and all things Eastern, so the little glass Lotus flower votive candle holder is just perfect. It's beautiful and made by a local artisan. She included some delicious goodies like dark chocolate covered cherries, a set of 3 delicious sounding jams and preserves, and these great sounding coffee tins! All stuff I love. There's a book that sounds great called The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by a local author named Sherman Alexie with some really cool illustrations! You know I love that ;) And then there's a wonderful Christmas CD that I've been enjoying all day and the best thing about the CD is that the proceeds from it go to the Children's Hospital which is near and dear to my heart as I've always worked with kids with disabilities and mental illness. Thank you so much Robin for this amazing gift and for the thought put into it and thank you Nymeth for creating such a wonderful experience!!

I also fit in two Christmas books today! The first was The Christmas Tree by Julie Salamon with illustrations by Jill Weber. It's a short read at just 118 pages, but filled with love and joy! Perfect Christmas read. The story's focus is on a nun by the name of Sister Anthony and her dear friend who happens to be a Norway Spruce named "Tree". The head gardener of Rockefeller Center is given the job every year of finding the perfect tree to be the Christmas Tree that we all know so well. While flying in a helicopter searching for it, he spots "Tree" at the convent that Sister Anthony lives at and goes to visit her to ask if he can have the tree for Rockefeller Center. The two form an unlikely friendship as Sister Anthony recounts her past from her troubled childhood through her times as a horticulturist up until now. This was a beautiful story and the story telling actually reminded me quite a bit of The Thirteenth Tale as strange as that may sound. Squeeze this one in if you can before Christmas! I've seen it on bargain shelves at Barnes and Noble.

The other book I read today was Kate DiCamillo's new picture book with Bagram Ibatoulline, the artist who did the paintings for The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. The book is called Great Joy. It's short and sweet and packs a powerful punch in it's few pages. Leave it to DiCamillo to deliver a touching story like few can. And the paintings are just gorgeous. An organ grinder and his monkey stand on a street corner playing sad music every day for change while young Frances looks down from her lush apartment window wondering where he goes at night. Her mother tells her not to worry about such things, but rather to worry about her line in the Christmas play the next night. But with a child's innocence Frances can't help but worry and wonder about the man and his monkey. Quite a nice little story here.

And of course after Debi and Nymeth's reviews, I had to go out and buy Cornelia Funke's When Santa Fell to Earth! Haven't read that one yet, but I'll get to it before Christmas!

Wind Follower by Carole McDonnell

2007-12-18T23:28:00.000-06:00

Wind Follower by Carole McDonnell is undoubtedly one of my favorite books of the year. As I sit down to write this review I find myself faced with the same problem I had earlier this year when reviewing The Time Traveler's Wife...How do I do this book justice? Wind Follower is a complex yet very readable book; an epic story that tells a powerful tale that imbibes the soul and is filled with passion in each page.

The story is set in a wonderfully unique world that's not often seen in fantasy literature. I'm not totally certain you'd classify this as fantasy, but it has the epic feel of a high fantasy novel and certainly has some fantastic aspects to it, so that should work. The world as I pictured it is a rich desert-like landscape somewhere in the African region. Three tribes abide in this region: The Theseni, the dark skinned original natives of the land; the Doreni, the lighter brown skinned people of the land who conquered the Theseni 500 years ago, and the Ibeni who I took to be people of Asian descent but I could be way off there. With each tribe, McDonnell has created a rich history and beautiful customs. Each tribe is wholly believable as a tribe that actually existed in our Earth's past as McDonnell so skillfully and masterfully describes their ways.

Loic is the son of Taer, the head of a Doreni clan. At the age of eighteen, Loic lays eyes on Satha, a Theseni woman who is 26 years old, and wants her for his wife. It's an unlikely marriage. Satha is beyond normal child bearing years and comes from a poor family. She is dark skinned and from a different tribe than Loic. But Loic has eyes only for her and swears to take her as his only wife and so he weds her and makes her part of his powerful household.

This unlikely union has many obstacles to face just in being what it is. But there are many other things that it will face. Loic has "the falling sickness" or epilepsy as we know it and he is considered weak for it, though few talk about it. This is one of many things that he must overcome to prove himself a strong leader. He must father a child to show his strength. And with that the couple faces more issues.

I really don't want to go much more into the plot because the book tells such a strong and gripping tale, a powerful tale that is so emotionally engaging. McDonnell takes on issues of rape, race, slavery, war, religion, and so much more and nothing is held back. She faces these issues head on and handles them in a way that is raw and honest yet leaves the soul satisfied.

It leaves the soul satisfied because one of the major themes of the book is spirituality. There is plenty of Christian allegory in this book, but you certainly don't have to be a Christian to enjoy it. The tribes in the novel are all steeped in their individual religious practices, some of them very raw, some very beautiful. They reminded me of Native American and Mayan religious practices. Loic and Satha go through quite a bit of trauma in this book. I'm not going to go through it because I don't want to spoil the plot, but they are separated and endure a lot. But there is an enduring spirit there and it comes from a power higher than man. It's truly beautiful and Carole has a true gift in being able to write such touching prose.

I can't say enough about Carole McDonnell's writing. It just blew me away! She created a world that was so incredibly complex with it's own slang, scenery, caste system, races, etc. and made it feel so comfortable. I fell into it easily. I fell in love with her characters instantly. Loic and Satha will both stay with me for a long time. They are both incredibly strong, amazing characters and I'm glad to have met them. Her use of language is just phenomenal. I found the novel painting a picture in my head as I read it, her words are chosen so perfectly. She certainly has a career ahead of her that I look forward to following.

Wind Follower was published through Juno Books which is a very cool publisher. I had never heard of it before finding this book, but Juno publishes books that focus on strong female characters! How cool is that?

Anyone else read this one? I'd love to discuss it. If not, please do! It's a great one!

Christmas Time Is FINALLY Here

2007-12-17T08:38:00.000-06:00

It's been a little rough trying to get into the Christmas spirit down here in New Orleans this year. I've tried everything. I've bought crap loads of presents, submerged myself in Christmas songs, surrounded the house in Christmas lights, baked cookies, watched all the specials, but it just doesn't happen when it's 85 degrees outside. Well this weekend temperatures finally dropped down here and I'm happy to announce that I awoke this morning to a temperature of 41 degrees! Yes I know that many of you are laughing hysterically now, but that's freezing down here :p Literally, my teeth were chattering in the car, lol. So, with that being said, it feels like Christmas now with still a week to enjoy it!

And Santa passed for me this weekend disguised as Carl! Well Carl didn't actually come over, but a package came! As you all know, Carl has to be one of the most kind and giving people out there. He's a genuinely good guy and he's taken care of me as far as reading material over the past year. So I mailed him a gift of my favorite book, Speaker for the Dead, for Christmas as well as a little cigarette case thingy with the cover of one of his favorite books, The Stainless Steel Rat, on the front of it. In preparation for Speaker for the Dead, he finished Ender's Game which sparked a discussion of how it reminded him somewhat of John Scalzi's Old Man's War which I immediately added to my wish list! Well, a few days later, I get Old Man's War in my mailbox wrapped in some of the coolest wrapping paper I've ever seen (I should've taken pictures). He also included a card that made me laugh that showed that he pays close attention to my blog. As I opened it, it began singing "I've been dreaming of a white Christmas" to me :p Thanks Carl!

And finally, it's not Christmas without football, and if you hate football, you can stop reading now! Drew Brees has been wonderful to us New Orleanians and Carl this weekend! Now if he can only take us to the Super Bowl like he has done with Carl. Stephanie will be my best friend tonight as I will be cheering on the Bears to beat the Vikings. In order for us to make it into the playoffs we need to win both of our last games and the Vikings need to lose one of their next two. So Go Bears!!! Of course, in two weeks, you'll be my worst enemy Steph ;)

Strange Dreams

2007-12-14T16:18:00.000-06:00

I seem to go through spells where I'll have very vivid dreams that I remember well for a few months and then I'll have no recollection at all of my dreams for a few months. Recently I've been remembering my dreams. I think it has something to do with the book I'm reading, Wind Follower, where dreams often have deep meaning.

Last night I had a dream that I didn't remember in it's entirety, but I remembered one particular part of it for some reason, and it was very odd. I have a little black lamp in my room and the lamp showed up in my dream. I was trying to change the light bulb in my dream and I couldn't find the right size bulb or the right wattage. I must have gone through 100 different bulbs trying to find it before I found the one that fit right. I could certainly have a lot of fun analyzing this one considering my current situation and unclear future. Anyway, it was strange that I spent so long in the dream focused on this lamp and this light bulb. Not much other action in the dream.

So I wake up this morning and go to get dressed and don't you know I go to turn on the same very lamp that was in my dream and the damn light bulb goes out! I literally had to sit down! It freaked me out! Now what am I supposed to take from that? I've been thinking about this one all day. I know I haven't been as aggressive as I should be trying to find another job mostly because I've just been down in the dumps. I've applied for 3 jobs now, but no real response. Maybe someone's telling me to get off my ass and change the bulb....start trying different bulbs until I find the one that fits. Who knows? Maybe it was just a weird psychic dream...

What It Takes To Pull Me Through by David L. Marcus

2007-12-12T14:14:00.000-06:00

In lieu of the recent events of my job, I thought that I'd post something on a more positive note about kids and therapy. I've been reading an incredible book by David Marcus called What it Takes to Pull me Through: Why Teenagers Get in Trouble and How Four of Them Got Out. The book actually chronicles the story of a group of about 13 kids at a therapeutic boarding home called Swift River in Massachusetts, but it's main focus is on four teens.

We follow the story of Mary Alice, a rich white girl struggling with an eating disorder, drug abuse and unprotected sex while putting on the perfect front; DJ, a young boy with ADD who is self destructive and has always had problems with the fact that he was adopted; Tyrone, a young black boy growing up in a poor neighborhood without a father figure who is disinterested in anything except for video games; and a young Spanish girl who is broken by the death of her mother and her dark past. This book is not fictional, it is real.

Swift river is a 14 month intensive therapy program where the kids are constantly examining themselves and their pasts. There are highs and lows as is expected. Not everyone makes it through the program. Some people slip up so bad that they're thrown out because they're too much of a risk to the other kids.

I can't tell you how many times I teared up reading this book. It reminded me so much of the clients that I've worked with over the past year. It's amazing what some of these kids have gone through and it's amazing what they are capable of getting through when given the chance. Some kids just need that extra nudge and the program in this book was that extra nudge for these kids. Their lives after the 14 month treatment were far from perfect but they were miles better than they were when they first stepped foot on the Swift River campus.

Adolescents have a lot to struggle through these days. It's not easy to be a teen in today's world. There's so much pressure put on them to be the perfect weight, to look a certain way, to talk and walk a certain way, to have a certain skin color, to come from a certain background, live in a certain neighborhood, wear certain clothes, listen to certain music, date certain people, follow a certain religion...this is just skimming the surface. Some things teens can control and some they can't. But some teens will go to any lengths they can to try to control it.

That's just one issue: trying to fit in....there are tens, hundreds of other issues that teens face that I could go on with: parenting, sexuality, identity, responsibility...It's a rough time for sure. I think that this book would be a great read for any parents out there, whether you have a child going through rough times or not. It's a raw and honest look at some of the real issues that teens face. It's a rare window into the minds of teens and their reactions to life's stressors. This book would also be perfect for teens going through some sort of crisis. It would be great to read the stories of others that they could relate to. And certainly, this is a great book for counselors. The counselors in this program were all amazing and had such a huge impact on these children.

Highly recommend this one to everyone.

All Things Must Come To A Close

2007-12-12T09:14:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting here in my office which is shrinking by the day, or becoming larger by the day depending how you want to look at it. Suffice it to say that my stuff is leaving the office a little bit each day. All that's left now is a few case files, a bowl of suckers, a book, 4 tubes of play-doh, and a slinky. Sounds like a party to me!

Every time I think I've moved past the point of anger and have finally accepted things for what they are, rage seems to come back again. None of it seems fair. I teach my kids how to deal with their anger issues every day, how to properly express their anger, how to not let it eat them up and consume them, but sometimes I wonder if I myself am capable of doing that. At least I'm not punching holes in doors and walls which is more than I can say for some of my kids. Maybe I'll make things out of play-doh and then smash them flat like the kids do...they seem to enjoy that.

Please read this article. This is the kind of stuff that infuriates me!!! This was in yesterday's newspaper. There is a huge budget surplus in Louisiana right now, yet mental health programs for the youth of this city are being cut! It's inane! Needless to say, we've all written our legislators to give them a piece of our mind and despite the budget surplus, they're still shutting down our program. This is a program that provides therapy to kids who need it. The beauty of this program is that kids get services who otherwhise wouldn't. It's done at the schools, so transportation is not an issue. You don't have to worry about mom or dad not being able to keep the appointment or getting them there. I've said all this before, but it apparently doesn't matter to the powers that be.

So for now, I sit here in my office with just one case left doing pretty much nothing. The one kid that I'm still working with said he's going to miss the program and that he was having fun. To quote him "It was cool, I got to play with stuff and eat candy and you actually listened to me...we talked about stuff." His mom told me that this was the first time that they've ever actually seen results and seen improvement. I know they're both going to miss the program, and so am I. He requested Jolly Rancher suckers as the candy jar was running low, so it's now full of those for our last session which is tomorrow. After that, I don't know what happens. It just sucks having to leave this kid after he finally opened up to someone.

Layoff What?

2007-12-10T17:00:00.001-06:00

A responsible person would hear the word "layoff", look at their monthly budget and cut back costs wherever necessary. Me? Not so responsible. I decided last night that I needed one more monthly expenditure so I went and opened up a Netflix account. I've gotta tell you that I am all excited about this and have already put 48 movies in my queue! So I should have Transformers arriving at my door tomorrow followed by Hot Fuzz shortly after that. The one responsible thing that I did do was go for the $8.99/month plan which allows for 1 movie at a time. I could've gone for a more expensive plan, but figured I could only afford the cheaper one...at least I hope.

Luckily I still have my job as a personal care attendant. I never quit that job in case the family ever needed me for emergencies. That way I'd be on the payroll and could work. I made roughly the same hourly wage there, so there's that. The only problem is that I don't get nearly 40 hours/week worth of work and there's no benefits. But I've been applying for other jobs, so we'll see what happens. I've been applying for a bunch of counselor jobs within the school system. I've found that I like that setting since being at this job and you can't beat having summers off!

In other news, book news, I'm still reading but very slowly. I've started Carole McDonnell's Wind Follower and the 60 pages that I've read so far is phenomenal! I expected to enjoy this one, but it's really exceeded my expectations. So far it's the story of a young man named Loic, son of the head of a tribe who has fallen in love with a dark skinned girl named Satha who is from a tribe different than his, poor and beyond the typical age of marriage. It's gripping, literally from page one and already explores issues of culture, race, and tradition. And isn't that cover incredible? Timothy Lantz is the cover artist.

I've also been reading a book that's really surprised me. It's called What it Takes to Pull me Through and it's the story of a group of adolescents at a psychiatric boarding school. As a counselor, it's a wonderful book and it's made me smile many times because it reminds me of so many of the groups that I ran at the psychiatric hospital that I interned at. I miss those kids.
The kids in this book all have different backgrounds and different issues and we follow them from their problems before they go into the school all the way through their 14 month treatment. We see the highs and lows and everything in between. This is a great read for anyone who is raising a teen or for counselors or for teens who are going through problems.

Christmas In New Orleans

2007-12-09T13:59:00.000-06:00

It's my turn for Kailana's (UPDATE: AND MARG'S (SORRY!!)) Advent Calendar! I've been loving the posts so far. This is really a wonderful idea and I had no clue what to do for this thing. Still don't really, but I figured I'd just write about what Christmas is like down here because we seem to be in our own little world :p

Every year I listen to all of these beautiful Christmas carols about "let it snow" and "winter wonderland" and I see these gorgeous decorations of houses dripping with white stuff and icicle lights, and I receive these nice little cards of Christmas cottages covered in snow with smoke rising from the chimney, and I flip through the JC Penny's catalog that has kids on the cover in jackets and knit hats throwing snowballs at each other and I wonder..."Does that really exist???" That truly is a Winter Wonderland to us down here in the south! As I type this it's 82 degrees and I'm wearing shorts and sandals.

Last year was the first Christmas that I've ever seen snow! Only the second time in my life I've ever seen snow. We got literally a half of inch of snow and you would have thought that everyone in New Orleans won the lottery. We were all that excited. We somehow managed to scrape up enough of the white stuff to build a snowman and gave it boiled shrimp for eyes because in New Orleans, we use anything as an excuse to boil seafood. I had a picture, but I lost it :( Normally on Christmas I always wear dress pants and a sweater, but I'm sure to wear a short sleeved shirt underneath, because it never drops below the 60's (except for last year). I usually loose the sweater within 30 minutes of showing up at Gram's house.

I wouldn't change any of this for the world though. Sure, I'd love to see a true white Christmas with heavy snow, but I love Christmas in New Orleans and I love Christmas with my family. Every Christmas has been special. I remember me and my sister swearing every year that we were going to stay up all night and wait for Santa and never making it! And then on Christmas morning, we'd wait by the hall door while mom got everything ready in the front, and we knew when we smelled the coffee brewing and the Christmas music start playing that it was time! It still works the same way ;)

The city itself is beautiful during Christmas time. City Park does Celebration in the Oaks every year where they transform the entire park into a festival of lights and you can either do the walking or driving tour. It's beautiful. The French Quarter just feels more special during Christmas time and the St. Louis Cathedral is always gorgeous. And nothing beats Cafe Du Monde's Cafe au Lait's and Beignets on a chilly night!

In closing, I've loved all the recipes that everyone's shared, so I thought I'd share my Gram's bread pudding recipe that she does every Christmas. We make ours with french bread, but I know that's not easy to get in other states, so any breat will do really. This is a good recipe to use when you don't know what to do with that stale bread you have!

Bread Pudding:

4 Cups Dry Bread Cubes
4 Cups Milk, Scalded
3/4 Cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon Butter
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
4 Slightly Beaten Eggs
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 Cup Raisins (optional)

Soak bread in mil for 5 minutes. Add sugar, butter and salt. Slowly pour eggs over, add vanilla and raisins, and mix well. Pour into greased 1 1/2 qt. baking dish. Bake in a pan of hot water in 350 degree oven until firm, about 1 hour. Serve warm with Rum Sauce.

Rum Sauce:

1/2 Cup Margarine
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons Rum

Mix sugar and rum together in a 2 cup glass measuring cup. Add margarine. Cook on high for 2 minutes. Serve warm over bread pudding

Don't forget to stop by RaiderGirl's site too!!! She's also hosting the Advent Calendar today!

The Sound Of Waves by Yukio Mishima

2007-12-04T10:19:00.000-06:00

I've officially dove into the Japanese Literature Challenge with Yukio Mishima's The Sound of Waves. And what a beautiful way to start the challenge. The sound of waves captures what Japanes literature has always been about to me in the classic sense. What little I've read is very reflective, personal, and it explores the human psyche and our relationships between one another. This book makes no exception to these rules.

The Sound of Waves is basically the story of first love and it's beautifully told through Mishima's writing. Shinji lives on a remote island in Japan by the name of Uta-Jima. The island relies on fishing and pearl diving as it's mainstay, men doing the fishing, women doing the pearl diving. Uta-Jima is a very traditional island. No TV, no movie theaters, no restaurants or big cities; life carries on as it always has and the island is steeped in traditional values. Shinji is 18 years old and has never had a girlfriend. He shows interest in a young girl named Hatsue who comes to stay with her uncle. He's not the only boy who shows interest in her. Many do! Shinji and Hatsue become friends and we see their relationship begin to blossom into something a bit more than friendship through truly exquisite writing that perfectly captures the beauty of first love. However, there are those who are jealous of Shinji and Hatsue's relationship and want to see it ended. Rumors fly around the village that they have acted hastily on their feelings and they are forbidden to see each other.

I'm not going to go any further into the story than that, but you get the basic idea of it. This was such a beautiful book. As I mentioned, Mishima captures the essence of that first loss of innocence, that first true love perfectly. He creates scenes where characters blush and we, the reader blush with them. The scenery of the island is described beautifully and Mishima actually makes the sea a character for the reader. He describes it so well that you can actually hear the sound of waves. We smile with the characters, we blush with the characters, our hearts break with them, and they are mended with them. I can't recommend this one enough.

There are also some beautiful Japanese brush illustrations at the beginning of each chapter by Yoshinori Kinoshita. Very cool. 1 down for the challenge, 3 to go!

Humor On A Sunday

2007-12-02T19:51:00.000-06:00

I can't stand focusing on the negative. It eats away at me. So having the big "F- You" post at the top of my blog has been bugging me all weekend. But I'm not deleting it; number 1 because all of you left such supportive comments that I appreciate more than I can tell you and number 2, because that's truly how I feel. But I had to clear the negative energy from the top of my blog, so I started to think of something that would put a smile on someone's face and then it hit me! What's more funny than the ridiculous thing called my "TBR Pile"...yeah right, "pile"...It's actually a TBR bookshelf. Without further ado, here is my TBR Pile:

Now, in addition to this, there are 7 books on my night stand, 1 at work, and a box of 10 sitting next to the bookshelf. Now, a few of these are rereads, but not many. In fact the only ones that I can think of that are rereads are Neil Gaiman's Good Omens, the LOTR trilogy and The Hobbit, and the Narnia books. The other hundred and something are all just books that have accumulated. And yet I continue to buy more and more books...have an Amazon wishlist that's six pages long, and I'm sure I'll be getting more books for Christmas. But hey, books make me happy! I'm sure many of you can relate!

Hopefully next year, I can clear a good chunk out of the shelf. I've signed up for a bunch of challenges using books from the shelf and I'm going to try my hardest to not buy so many books! We'll see how that goes.

So if any of you out there care to share, I thought that this would be fun. Feel free to post pictures of your TBR piles! You can leave a link to your post in the comments of this post if you want, that way people can come back and check for others' posts. Some of you may actually have a small pile, and some may have small libraries like me ;) I'm hoping that someone out there has a bigger shelf than me filled so that I don't look so bad ;)

Putting A Lid On Happiness

2007-11-30T18:10:00.000-06:00

Excuse my language, but I'd like to give this state a big Fuck You! I just found out today that I'll be laid off from my job and that my last day of work will be December 28th. The reason being that the state is cutting funding for the program in half, actually a little more than half, so over half of the employees in our program are getting laid off. This means that the remaining employees will have double the work and not be able to give the children the services that they really need. On top of that, chances are the program will get no funding at all next school year.

This pisses me off so much. It would be different if this program was a failure, but it's not. It's a huge success! We're currently seeing over 400 students with anxiety, depression, or behavioral problems and nearly all of them have been success stories. And the kids love the program. It hurt to see the woman who developed the program have to give us this news today. She has a heart of gold and I know it must crush her to hear this news.

Meanwhile, while the children are suffering with trauma related disorders from Katrina and other serious psychiatric problems, the government of Louisiana is spending money on ridiculous things like cars for hundreds of state employees that don't really need them. We give cars to over 330 state employees while other states give them to as little as 8 employees. Our program needs $800,000 to fund the program for the rest of the year. That's nothing when it comes to government spending and I think that it's sick that they're not willing to spend that money to continue to better the lives of children who are in need of psychiatric services and can't get them elsewhere. But the fact is they will not spend it and unless a miracle happens and someone gives the money to our program, that's it. What is wrong with this state???

There is NOWHERE for people to go who need counseling. Nowhere! I know because I looked for a job for 5 months in mental health and couldn't find one. Especially for children. This was the perfect job and I'm going to miss it so much. The kids were wonderful, my peers were wonderful, my licensure supervision was free and my supervisor was wonderful, and I was doing what I loved to do! I'm not going to be able to find this anywhere else in Louisiana because this was all that was left for these kids. And now this is being taken away. I can't tell you how disgusted I am. Not even so much for myself. I'll find another job...I'll go do something, but what about the kids...

And The Craziness Just Continues...

2007-11-29T21:22:00.000-06:00

If you ever need a self-esteem booster, just announce to everyone that you've finished writing a novel! Thanks everyone for your kind words. I hope that next year more people join NaNoWriMo. It really was a great experience. Grueling but great...

So, now that I've accomplished one task, I'm setting myself up for failure! How might I be doing that you ask? Well, I'm adding two more reading challenges to the already gigantic list of challenges already signed up for. But both of these were just too great to pass up. And like I said in a previous post, I've pretty much accepted the fact that I won't complete all of these challenges. But even if I don't, it'll knock quite a few books off of the TBR bookshelf which now literally can't hold any more books! They're piling up on the floor now. I'll post pictures of the TBR bookshelf soon, it's quite humorous that I still actually buy books when you see what I actually have sitting here unread. But back to the challenges.

The first challenge is Bellezz a's Japanese Reading Challenge. I am SO excited about this one. It's an incredible idea for a challenge. I've always loved everything Asian. Food, books, movies, culture, religion...you name it I'm a fan...well for the most part, I'm sure there are a few things in Asia that I could do without. I have a particular love for Japan, so when I heard that Bellezza was hosting this challenge I was filled with glee. It starts tomorrow, November 30th and runs through January 30th and you have to read 3 books. That's it! I'm reading four because I couldn't limit it to 3 :p She's putting together some cool origami prizes! You can sign up here. Here's my list:

1. Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima (Megan's favorite book, promised her I'd read this)
2. The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima
3. First Snow on Fuji by Yasunari Kawabata
4. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

The second challenge is equally as cool and focuses on another one of my favorite things...Graphic Novels! Dewey has put together a graphic novel challenge that runs through all of 2008 and the challenge is to read 6 graphic novels. My list is rather boring and focuses on a lot of Neil Gaiman mostly because that's what's on my TBR shelf and I'm trying not to buy too many books next year. But for those looking for something new, Nymeth has put together an incredible list on her page and she's written some really great reviews recently on graphic novels. Alice in Sunderland sounded really cool and I may end up adding that one anyway. Carl also blogged about one called Mouse Guard that I saw at B&N the other day and I may end up picking that up too :p But here's my list for now. I'm signing up for 7 because I had 7 graphic novels on my shelf and I couldn't leave one out ;):

1. Midnight Days by Neil Gaiman
2. Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman
3. Black Orchid by Neil Gaiman
4. Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman
5. Death: Time of Your Life by Neil Gaiman
6. Spiderman: Spirits of the Earth by Charles Vess
7. The Book of Ballads by Charles Vess

I Did It!!

2007-11-29T13:00:00.000-06:00

I wrote a frickin' book! I officially finished NaNoWriMo today and if you go to my profile, my word count will proudly display that I am a "winner" and that my final word count is 51,315 words. And that's where it's staying. I'm done! I thought that I might finish today but the bigger chance was that I would finish on Friday. But I started writing and the ending just took off. This is what I've been waiting for! I actually knew how I wanted to end the book, so I was excited about writing again.

It's a relief to be done, but at the same time, I'm going to miss it. I don't know what I'm going to do now when I'm bored at work :p Overall, I think I'm happy with my story, but it's going to need some serious editing before it's readable to anyone and I'm sure it'll jump to about 75,000 words by the time I finish expanding it. But I'm leaving it alone for now. I don't think I'm touching it again until next year...maybe in January sometime. I've had enough of that story for now!

Biggest surprise of the whole experience was today as I was writing one of the final scenes. I got real emotional with one part and I was not expecting that at all! It's funny how characters that you create become so real and our minds play tricks on us. Here I am making up the story, it's coming from my brain, but at the same time, I'm processing it like I'm reading this touching story that's already written. Very weird.

But anyway, it's done! One of my biggest goals in life has always been to write a novel. It was one of those things that I always thought I'd say but never do. Or I pictured myself writing in a park sometime after I retired, but never now. So it's a great feeling to have accomplished that goal. And thanks everyone for your encouragement along the way and a special thank you to Deslily who stopped by my blog nearly every day after checking my progress to cheer me on.

Now I have to go find some real work to do....

New Books!

2007-11-26T18:30:00.001-06:00

It seems that the new book gods stopped by my house today while I was at work not really working, but rather, writing my NaNo book which I'm less than 7,000 words from finishing! Ahem...work will resume tomorrow *cough*inbetweenwriting*cough* Now I promised that I'd try hard not to buy anymore books for myself this year and I'm sticking to that! I ordered these six books from bookcloseouts.com about 2 weeks ago and there just getting to me. So without further ado, here they are:

The God of Small Things: Both Kim and Nymeth read this one and gave it amazing reviews. I've heard nothing but good stuff about this one and it won the Booker Prize! I tend to like the Booker winners.

The Christmas Tree: This one was an impulse buy. It was only $1.99 on the website and it has some great illustrations. I was just looking for something Christmas-y to read.

A Study in Scarlett: Who hasn't read this book aside from me! Everyone who read this one for the RIP Challenge seemed to love it so I had to add it to my list.

The Bat Poet: I just happened to stumble upon this one on the website and it's such a cool book! It's illustrated by Maurice Sendak who I absolutely love. I feel like I can already recommend this one to everyone before I even read it.

The Book of Flying: Who recommended this to me? Someone did awhile back when I did one of those "what's your favorite book" posts...or it might have been "biggest surprise favorite book" I don't know, but this book looks so cool and I love the cover. And I know it's on somebody's favorites list!

The Kitchen Boy: This one comes recommended by Eva. She read it during the 24 hour reading challenge and really enjoyed it and I enjoyed her review of it :) So I'm hoping to enjoy the book in return! That's alot of joy!

Aside from reading and not working when I should be, I put up the Christmas lights tonight and I must say that they look nice! I couldn't help but laugh when I thought that since Katrina we've decorated a different house every year for Christmas. Actually, for the first Christmas, it was two. First I decorated my condo in Baton Rouge and then when I moved back to Metairie (my hometown, a suburb of New Orleans) we decorated our trailer...the inside at least. Last Christmas we were living in a duplex that we were renting, so we decorated our half of that, and now this Christmas we're renting a house! So at least we're movin on up! Hopefully by next year FEMA will get their act together and allow my mom to finally rebuild her house so that she can have a real Christmas in her own home again!

Christmas Time Is Here

2007-11-24T23:24:00.000-06:00

At least in my neck of the woods it seems to be. Did anyone else start their Christmas shopping yet? I just happened to get my paycheck on the day after Thanksgiving and have now spent half of that paycheck already on gifts! But I'm almost done my shopping now! How cool is that...The only bad thing about being almost done already is that I know I'll keep buying until Christmas comes around. I love giving gifts, I always have. It's one of my favorite things about Christmas. There's nothing quite like the feeling of picking something special out for someone and sending it along to them.

The stores were a little crowded today and yesterday, but not near as bad as I thought. I waited in line for 40 minutes at Circuit City yesterday which was miserable, but that was the only bad line. I would've just left but they had Madden '08 for real cheap and my little brother wanted it for Christmas and I found someone else's gift there too, so I had to wait it out. Aside from that though, I really didn't wait in any lines. So now I'm completely finished shopping for Megan, my mom, my dad, my little brother, AND I'm already finished shopping for my secret santa for Nymeth's Blogger Christmas Exchange :)

Aside from Christmas shopping, life has been good. This little Thanksgiving break has been nice, though I've slacked on my book. Not too bad though. I'm 2000 words behind right now. I'm at about 38,000 words and should be at 40,000. I could catch up tonight, but honestly I'm just not feeling motivated enough to write. Instead, I'll continue to fry my brain with the South Park Christmas DVD that I bought at Target today ;) Me and my little brother have spent all night watching that and playing Kirby's Air Ride on the Gamecube....all while stuffing our faces with Krispy Kremes. No complaints here!

Varjak Paw by S.F. Said

2007-11-23T22:46:00.000-06:00

I picked up Varjak Paw mainly because it's fully illustrated by Dave McKean. The illustrations are wonderful and there are PLENTY of them throughout the book. But I ended up not only enjoying the illustrations but enjoying the story as well.

Varjak Paw is a house cat, a Mesopotamian Blue. He lives with his mother and father and brothers and sisters and is by far the least popular of the family. Varjak has always loved hearing stories of the great Jalal, the "ancient one", the first Mesopotamian Blue to come to America from what I gathered. His tales include stories of the outside world. Varjak and his family have never seen the outside world. They've never seen anything but the Contessa's house that they live in and the backyard. Now, however, a new man has come into the house after the Contessa has disappeared and with him are two mysterious black cats that are up to no good. In order to get rid of them, someone is going to have to go to the outside world and find something called a "dog" that should scare the cats away. Varjak decides that he will take on this task.

We follow Varjak on his adventures as he first leaves his sheltered life and enters the outside world where he meets street cats and encounters the big city. He learns the ways of Jalal, the elder through dream sequences that add a very nice eastern philosophy touch to the book.

Overall, this was quite an enjoyable book and I'd recommend it to readers young and old. I have a couple of people that I think I'm going to buy this one for as a Christmas gift mainly for the Dave McKean illustrations which are really great! There's a second book out in the Varjak Paw series as well. If you're looking for another great review of this book, check out Nymeth's!

Giving Thanks

2007-11-21T22:52:00.000-06:00

Occasionally I have my moments of clarity. They don't come often, but when they do, I enjoy them. The world can be such and overwhelming and hectic place sometimes. There are deadlines to meet, places to be, people to please, schedules to make. I was at work today having one of those days. I had my first staffing with the psychiatrist. For those not in the mental health field, this is basically where we, the counselors, present our treatment plans for our clients and the psychiatrist signs off on them as long as she approves. It all went fine, but the process was very hectic to get everything done in time so that I could enjoy my Thanksgiving break.

After staffing, everyone started talking about their plans for Thanksgiving and I started noticing a common theme: Stress! Everyone was stressed out...I have to cook, I have to clean, people are coming over that I can't stand, I have to go somewhere I don't want to be, I hate holidays. Then I started thinking...boy have we lost the point of these holidays. It's become a chore, an obligation, a yearly habitual process that you have to participate in for some people. I know it's not this way for everyone. For our family, we enjoy having our get togethers for holidays. It's nice to sit down and eat together and catch up on one another's lives, but honestly, even for me, Thanksgiving has become just another reason to eat and see family.

So, onto my moment of clarity. My moment of clarity was really as simple as breaking down the word into two separate words and seeing the obvious, it's a day for "giving thanks". We're raised always knowing that Thanksgiving is a day for giving thanks, but I don't think I've ever taken the time to sit and really think about what I'm thankful for. Truth be told, I'm thankful for so much! My list could go on forever. It was rather refreshing to think on this. I'm so used to complaining about what's wrong that it was nice to think about how grateful I am for having such a wonderful family to spend these holidays with, for having 2 paid days of vacation for the first time in my life, for being happy with my job, for writing a book, for having the most amazing girlfriend that a guy could ever ask for, for having a roof over my head, for having the greatest blogger friends in the world, for having good health (for the most part)...

The list could go on and on. There are so many things to be thankful for if you just step aside and take a good look. I hope that each and every one of you enjoy your Thanksgiving Day and cherish the things that you have to be thankful for. Happy Turkey Day!

Classics Challenge Completed

2007-11-18T17:09:00.000-06:00

I've officially completed the Classics Challenge hosted by Crazy Cozy Murders. Finished it up last night with C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters which I owe a review on. I liked it well enough though to be honest it was one of those books that I read sometimes and then thought "wait a minute what did those last 10 pages say?" Hate it when that happens...Anyway, this one was a success overall. I really enjoyed Rebecca which replaced The Age of Innocence which I just couldn't get through and I loved The Death of Ivan Ilyich. I'm going to try to read some more Tolstoy next year if there's time.

~~Siddhartha by Herman Hesse~~
~~The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis~~
~~The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy~~
~~Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier~~
~~The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis~~

Thoughts On A Friday Night

2007-11-16T21:42:00.000-06:00

First let me introduce you to my new favorite shirt:
Now that you've made his acquaintance...I decided that after a loooong day at work I'd go get some coffee and then come home and work on my NaNo book. I stepped outside and was greeted by this cold, crisp night air and it suddenly felt like Christmas time. It could be Nymeth's Blogger Christmas Exchange or it could be Kailana's Advent Calendar, but I'm in the mood early this year. I love Christmas, but there's a bit of melancholy that goes along with it. I went and looked up the word "melancholy" on dictionary.com and found this as one of it's definitions, which I like best:

"sober thoughtfulness; pensiveness."

It's not so much that this time of the year is depressing, because it's not at all for me...it's a very odd feeling, hard to describe. A mixture of warm feelings, yet a yearning for something missing. I think of Megan a lot when holidays come around. Especially Christmas. This year should be good though because it's looking like she's flying in for Christmas and then I'm driving her back up to Texas and staying for New Years. I'm sure everyone has someone that they're reminded of around the holidays who's either no longer with us or is miles away, yet it's still a happy time to be celebrated with those who are with us. A conflict of emotions. Which leads me to Christmas music...yes this is a very schizophrenic post...

So I got in my car and wanted to listen to Christmas music because of the weather, but of course I didn't have any Christmas CDs in my car yet...so it was between Norah Jones or The Fray...so you might ask, "why Norah Jones or The Fray?" Both artists' music remind me of Christmas music. Norah Jones has an inherent quality to her music that induces a sense of happiness, peace, warmth, yet it's very nostalgic in a way. Listening to Norah Jones album can take you back to times that happened way before her albums were ever released and every time I make a Christmas mix CD I want to put one of her songs on it even though she doesn't have a Christmas album (not that I know of at least). Now The Fray is a slightly different story. First of all, I'm embarrassed to admit that I own a Fray CD, but it is indeed what I chose to listen to tonight. When The Fray writes their songs, I think they aim for this quality to their music. I think they studied what makes a Christmas song a Christmas song and the feelings that go along with it and tried to put it in every song they wrote which is why EVERY SINGLE TV DRAMA uses their music. As an aside, I think the lead singer of the band would do a much better job of being the voice of Kermit the Frog than the jackass that does it now. So The Fray actually worked very well as Christmas music tonight accompanied by a nice chill in the air and a hot mocha from the coffee shop. I'm happy and a little nostalgic and wishing I could talk to Megan.

I've also had a long day and obviously need sleep otherwise I wouldn't have written such a ridiculous post that probably doesn't make sense to anyone but me. But instead of going to sleep, I'm pumping my veins with caffeine and writing a book! This is what the rest of my night looks like:

Wahoo! Wednesday, Blogger Christmas Exchange, And NaNo Day 14

2007-11-14T13:19:00.000-06:00

Lots of stuff in this post today! To start off with, CJ had a wonderful idea. As many of you know, our beloved blogger, Bookfool is going through some rough times right now and had to step away from blogland for a little while. She's in my thoughts and I know she's in the thoughts of so many other bloggers out there. One thing that I'm certainly missing and CJ was missing too was Bookfool's Wahoo! Wednesdays :) Bookfool takes the time every Wednesday to find something to say "Wahoo" about in life. That can be hard at times, but you would be amazed at the simple things that she finds in life that are truly beautiful. These are often accompanied with her beautiful photographs. CJ suggested that we all Wahoo about something today and let Bookfool know we're thinking of her. My favorite photographs of hers are always her nature photographs, particularly her bird photos! So the one I'm sharing and saying Wahoo! about is one of three hawks that have been living in our backyard! They've become like family, but I'm afraid that they've moved on for the winter :( I took this about 3 weeks ago...hopefully they'll come back next year.

The next Wahoo is for Nymeth :) She's putting together something that I am so excited about! The Blogger Christmas Exchange. It's a secret santa thing for the book blogging community and you can read all about it and get the details on her blog. She's amazing for organizing this. I'm sure it's no small task. I'm definitely in and I've already signed up and hope that everyone else will too. Like she said, the bigger it is, the more fun it will be. I think it'll be so much fun to shop for another book blogger :D

And the last Wahoo of the day is for NaNo day 14. A Wahoo is due for today because I crossed the halfway mark! Just barely though at 25,020 words. So it's all downhill from here. Another week or so and I can start bringing the story to a close. I can't wait to do that. I have so many plans that I'm looking forward to for the end of this story. But if the rest of the story is any measure of how the ending will go, all my plans will be thrown out the window because the characters just don't like where I'm taking them! They seem to have a mind of their own...

NaNo Day 13

2007-11-13T17:20:00.000-06:00

Just a quick NaNo update. Today was odd, a scary day actually. I opened my computer, opened the book file and felt uninspired. I just didn't know where to go with my story. I feel like I'm reaching sort of a plateau with it. I know where I want to go with my ending, but it's too early to start going there. So I don't know what to do in the meantime. But I knew I had to go somewhere.

So I just started writing some stuff. I ended up finishing Chapter 11 and then went on to write Chapters 12 & 13 which may be my favorite chapters that I've written so far. It's strange how that worked out. I went from being uninspired to writing my favorite stuff. Now my concern is that these 2 chapters don't fit in with the rest of the book. They fit in with the story line, but they're told from a totally different point of view than the rest of the book so far. This may make no sense to anyone but me, so just excuse this entry if that's the case :p But I really like them, so I'm keeping them in. I think they add a nice touch to the book and most importantly (in NaNo terms at least) they add 4,000 words bringing my count up to 23,115 words! Almost to that halfway point.

My big worry is that this lack of inspiration is going to become a pattern. I'm hoping some inspiration comes tomorrow. It was rough to get into that groove today. I hadn't had any problems until today. I know that in his book, Chris Baty talks about the second week of NaNo being the hardest for most people and that if you can get past that point you'll make it...maybe I'm just getting my "second week blues" now. But I'll get through it...Luckily, it's another slow week at work, so I have the time to write ;)

Oh! And my copy of Marked came in the mail today! That made me happy :) Thanks Eva!!!

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

2007-11-12T14:06:00.000-06:00

Some of you may be familiar with David Sedaris. He's frequently heard on NPR's This American Life and he's written quite a few books of essays on life and culture. This is the second book of his that I've read (for the Seconds challenge nonetheless!) and I loved it!

Sedaris' writing can be enjoyed by just about anyone. His stories are personal and are reflective on his life, but in talking about his own life and his own experiences he reflects on the world and society as a whole. And he writes in a way that you'll find yourself literally laughing out loud in embarassing places. I finished this book at the car dealership today while I was getting my oil changed and couldn't help but laugh as David talked about his father hoarding food until it was rotten and not buying meat unless it was priced so low that it had a sticker on it that said "to be consumed immediately" which he would justify by saying that meat was supposed to be gray, the stores just dyed it red to make it look pretty.

Me Talk Pretty One Day is divided into two parts. The first half of the book focuses on David's life in the U.S., stories from his childhood and stories from his experiences living in New York. The second half of the book focuses on his life in France as an American. Trust me, there's lots of great commentary here, and while you'll find yourself laughing out loud, there's a bit of sad truth to so much of what he talks about. Some of my favorite parts of the book are his experiences with the French language which include a French language class taught by a French woman who's goal it was to belittle all of her students and his chapter on trying to figure out the gender of french words.

I highly recommend that if you have never read any of Sedaris' books, you pick one of them up. I'm sure that they're all equally as good. I've read Dress Your Family Up In Corduroy and Denim as well and that one was great too. I'm not usually a fan of non-fiction or of essays in general, but these do the trick!

Miles Apart

2007-11-10T22:15:00.000-06:00

Well me and Megan couldn't have spent our days any differently (For those new to my blog, me and my girlfriend, Megan live in 2 different states since Hurricane Katrina, but that will soon be amended). My day first because I had the boring day. My uncle Robert who passed away recently had some very OCD like tendencies when it came to cleaning. I mean serious OCD tendencies. He'd go through a bottle of 409 a week at my Grandma's house where he lived. So needless to say, no one else used to clean over there because we all knew that it wouldn't be cleaned good enough and he would just go back and reclean behind us. So since he's passed away, no one's given the house a good cleaning. So we went to my Grandma's today and cleaned the shit out of that house! We took the blinds down, polished the baseboards, cleaned the picture frames, and then of course all the normal bathrooms and vacuuming and all that good stuff. So that's how I spent my day.

Now Megan calls me in the middle of all this to tell me that she just jumped out of a plane!!! I knew she planned on going sky diving soon, but I had no idea it was today! And thank God I didn't because I would've been worrying all morning! The only peace of mind that I had was that she was strapped to an instructor who knew when to pull the parachute. She said that she had a blast doing it and that it was amazing. I'm sure it was quite thrilling and I'm really glad she did it, because if she didn't do it then she would've never done it. I'm sure as hell not doing that! lol...I'm a big wimp when it comes to heights...especially plummeting from heights. Now she's going to the Renaissance Festival..yes, the huge one in Texas, and I'm extremely jealous! I love that festival!

In the meantime, I just went and got my coffee so that I can spend the next couple of hours caffeinated and doing some more writing. I was going to take the day off because I really didn't feel like writing, but then I made a really cool mix cd with some great music and it got me thinking creative and now I have ideas. Music does that sometimes.

Update: I finished Chapter 9 of the book tonight and added the whole chapter to my NaNo profile, so if you click on the "novel excerpt" tab of my profile and scroll down past chapters 2 and 5 you can read it (haven't checked it for errors, so sorry if there are some). It's the first chapter I've put on my profile so far that's set in the real world.

Speaking of music, check out this hilarious picture that my sister found. This is right before my 18th birthday. Rockin' the old Pumpkin's Zero shirt and the oh so serious and determined face :p

Not Making The Cut & NaNo Day 9

2007-11-09T17:02:00.000-06:00

The Age of Innocence and me really just aren't getting along, so I'm afraid that I'm dumping it and passing it along to the friends of the library. This is the second time I've tried to read it and I couldn't get past page 34. I know so many people love this book, it's just not for me. So, I replaced it with Rebecca for the Classics Challenge so that I can still fulfill my requirements for that one. I've also made the decision to pull out of the Pulitzer Project. I think my ambitions were a little too lofty when I signed up for that one. It's just too big of a commitment for me and I hate leaving things wide open. That one doesn't have a time frame, which means that I would NEVER complete it...I need deadlines! And I would probably run into the same problem with many of the other books as I did with The Age of Innocence. So I accepted that it was not for me and I'm feeling relieved. There are still plenty of Pulitzer winners that I'd like to read and I still will...just not all of them.

In yesterday's post, Dark Orpheus said that she was curious as to what the line of dialogue was that led me to discover what the ending of my NaNoWriMo book will be. So I went back and read it and saw that it was actually internal dialogue and vague enough that it wouldn't give away the central plot, so I'd share. The character who speaks (or thinks) the line doesn't even know what's going on. So here it is:

“You’re not gonna find him,” he thought. “You’re not gonna find him until they’re ready to give him back.”

Ooh...mysterious..psht...whatever, I still don't know exactly where this thing is going! I didn't get much writing done at all today. I had to get to 15,003 words and I got to 15,067 or something like that. So at least I met my goal, but it's only about 500 words more than yesterday. I just wasn't feeling up to writing today. Hopefully tomorrow's better. It's hard to write during the weekend. I've been writing at work, so I associate writing this book with being at work. So now when I'm home for the weekend I feel like it should be a break from everything. But since I'm a state employee now, I have a 3 day weekend for Veteran's Day, so I would have a whole lot of catching up to do if I took the whole weekend off. So I have to force myself to write!

But now I'm going to go enjoy the start of my weekend. I've traded The Age of Innocence for David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day which I'm loving so far. I love David Sedaris. He's hilarious, but writes genius social commentary at the same time. This is my second book of his being read for the Seconds Challenge! Go figure. Hope everyone else has a great weekend as well!

Trying To Stay With It & NaNo Day er...8

2007-11-08T17:48:00.001-06:00

Do you ever pick up a book and just want to put it back on the shelf so bad or just give it away but feel guilty for not reading it? That's how I am with The Age of Innocence right now. This is the second time I've tried to read this one and this book is so not my thing. I'm on my third day of reading it and I'm only 28 pages into it and it's been 28 pages of real effort, let me tell you. Normally, I'd just call it a "did not finish" and give it away to someone, but I feel like I have to see this one out. Someone tell me it gets better...please.

The reason I feel like I have to read this one is two fold. Number 1, it's for the classics challenge. Now I just read Rebecca, so I could substitute that one for this one, but it's also (number 2) for The Pulitzer Project and that would just drive me crazy if I read all of the Pulitzer winners and then didn't finish just this one. So I'm going to have to read it eventually to complete the Pulitzer list so I might as well finish it now, right?

These high society books are just not my thing. There are just too many names and too many families and no action at all. They go to an opera, they have dinner, they have a party. Mr. so and so talks to Mrs. so and so who's daughter is betrothed to Mrs. so and so's son...you know how it goes. And the funny thing is, I enjoy the period piece films and mini-series that the BBC and Masterpiece Theatre produce, but I can't get into this type of literature for some reason. It just doesn't hold my interest. Who knows. I know lots of people love this book, so maybe if I get further than page 30 I'll start enjoying it.

On the NaNo front, today was excellent! I had a rush of ideas and exceeded the word goal of the day which was somewhere in the 13,000 range and went up to 14,497 words. Then the coolest thing happened. As I was writing dialogue for one of my characters, this one line came out of his mouth and I suddenly knew the ending of my book! Until he said what he said, I had no idea where I was going with this story. Now I do. And I jotted it all down with all of the twists and turns of where I want it to go so that I don't forget any of it. Now I just have to figure out how to get this story to that point. That's the next challenge.

Tomorrow's Friday, yay!

Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier & NaNo Day 6

2007-11-06T17:09:00.000-06:00

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."

Rebecca was perhaps the biggest surprise of the year for me so far. I had always thought Rebecca to be a romance novel, mostly due to a horribly misleading cover which I wouldn't look twice at (luckily it's out in a new trade paperback version with a great cover that I picked up which is pictured in this post!). The misleading cover is bright red with "Rebecca" written in gold slanting letters...I'm sure you've seen it. I've always known of Hitchcock's movie, Rebecca, but didn't know that it was a production of Daphne Du Maurier's novel! When I saw that people were reading Rebecca for the RIP Challenge, I put two and two together and came out of the experience with what will most definitely make the top ten list of 2007!

At it's heart, Rebecca is a ghost story, though there is no true ghost in the novel as far as what we traditionally think of as a ghost. It's the story of walking in the shoes of someone that you've never known, of taking over the life of someone you've never known. It's the story of a past that continually haunts the present. The narrator of the novel meets a man by the name of Maxim DeWinter, who's wife, Rebecca, has recently drowned. To make a long story short, the narrator and Maxim marry and she is brought to Manderley, a grand and well-known house where she lives a life in a part of society that she has never known. But she is no Rebecca. She knows nothing of this type of society and she fears that Maxim will never love her like he loved Rebecca. The second Mrs. DeWinter slowly uncovers who Rebecca was and the secrets surrounding her life.

This books was just amazing and took twists and turns that I never suspected. It was just an incredibly classic story and I never wanted it to end. I haven't been so disappointed by reaching a books end in ages. And it wasn't the ending that I was disappointed in, it was just the fact that it had ended. This book reminded me so much of The Thirteenth Tale and The Historian. If you liked the atmosphere of those books, I think you'd enjoy this one. Like those two, this one does a wonderful job of telling it's reader a riveting story. There will definitely be more Daphne Du Maurier in my future!

In other news, I broke the 10,000 word mark today in NaNoWriMo! And a wonderful character emerged. Deslily made a joke in a comment awhile back asking if there was a part for her in my book. So I said, sure, why not?! lol...So she became a queen and was introduced today in Chapter 5 and I really like her character! I've posted the beginning of chapter 5 in my "excerpt" section of my NaNo profile if anyone's interested. It's under the beginning of chapter 2 so just scroll down until you get to chapter 5. You can get to my profile by clicking the NaNo link in my sidebar. Please excuse any typos or grammatical mistakes...I haven't proofread anything! I just copied and pasted. Add me as a friend if you're doing NaNo! I'd love to get a little group of NaNo buddies over there :)

NaNo Day 5 aka The Little Engine That Could

2007-11-05T16:17:00.000-06:00

So here's day 5 and I still have ideas! To anyone who thinks that they can't do NaNoWriMo, you can! I promise you, you can! If I can do this, anyone can, trust me. I sat at my computer today knowing that I was behind and knowing that I somehow had to reach 8,335 words today. And sadly I had no plot ideas when I walked into work this morning (yes I'm still writing at work :p). I literally opened my computer and typed a couple of words and thought "uh-oh! No more ideas". And then one hit me and I ran with it and I loved it! I finished the day with 8,482 words and I now have plenty of ideas for where I'm going next with my story.

I am starting to realize that the editing process is going to take quite a long time once I'm done with this puppy. I'm afraid that this is only going to be readable to me in its current form and will most probably make no sense to anyone else in its first draft. I'm going to have to go back and rearrange scenes and add scenes and develop scenes more, but for right now, I'm just going forward as the NaNo team suggests and leaving editing for later. I genuinely like my story though and that's something that I never thought would happen! Yeah, told you, I'm my own worst critic! I really expected crap to come out, but the story is there...it's just hard to get it to come out on paper how it looks in my head sometimes. But we're getting there!

I was so proud of my near 8500 words today and I started clicking on friends' friends' pages and started finding people who have already gone well over the 50,000 word mark! How the hell do you do that?! One girl went over 50K on the first day! She wrote for 24 hours straight on November 1st and blogged each hour on her progress. Kinda like Dewey's read-a-thon. Now that's impressive!

My reading has suffered as a result of NaNo, I'm afraid (I haven't forgotten about you Pat ;) But I'm still reading Rebecca and I'm REALLY enjoying it now with only about 80 pages left. And then I have to tackle this giant pile sitting next to my bed. I have another ARC heading my way too from Carole McDonnell. She's a really sweet woman who's sending me a copy of her book Wind Follower which sounds incredible and has an awesome cover! So look for that review in probably about a month. As for now...back to NaNo...

We Have Some Winners!

2007-11-04T16:38:00.000-06:00

The Saints and LSU both take home huge victories this weekend, which put a big smile on my face :) Now, if Manning takes home a victory for the Colts, I'll be one extremely happy camper. But I know there's something else that everyone else is interested in! The three book giveaways ended today and the winners have been chosen, so without further ado, here are the winners!

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card goes to Booklogged!!! Congrats Booklogged! So glad you won this one. I think you'll love it!

American Gods goes to Susan! You're on a roll, huh? ;) Hope you enjoy this one, it's great!

And Scar Night goes to Kailana! This one couldn't have found a better home. I think this one's right up your alley Kailana. Wasn't for me, but I think you may enjoy it!

Send me your snail mail addresses and I'll get them right out to y'all. My email address is chrisa511@gmail.com. Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone who participated. I really enjoyed reading everyone's favorite books and added a bunch more to my wishlist...like I needed that :p

No NaNo update today which actually puts me behind about 200 words, but I'll catch up tomorrow! Sundays are made for rest anyway...and for football and Family Guy :p

Giving Back Sticky Post

2007-11-04T12:00:00.000-06:00

***Scroll Down for newer posts

So it seems that the gods are telling me that it's time to give back, time to keep karma balanced. I've won two books lately! The first was Marked by PC and Kristin Cast from Eva and the second was an ARC of Colleen Gleason's new book (not due until February 2008) The Bleeding Dusk! So I'm doing one of my favorite things to do, a book giveaway! But not just one, not just two, but three book giveaways! Here's the scoop:

I went to Borders tonight and picked up very nice trade paperback copies of my two favorite books. I figured it would be fun to share my favorite books with other people. All I ask is that in return you share two of your favorite books with me! That's the rules. In order to be entered for the drawing, tell me two of your favorite books in the comments. You can even write your own post about it if you'd like and post your link in the comments...it'll be fun to share our favorites with each other. I broke this into 3 separate giveaways because I figured some people may have one or two of these books already, so just let me know which titles you want to be entered for. Feel free to enter for all 3!The first book up for grabs is Orson Scott Card's Speaker For the Dead. This book is truly amazing and is my favorite book ever written. It's the sequel to Ender's Game, so you may want to read that one first, but you could read it as a stand alone...it'll work. This book won the Hugo and the Nebula and really defines what a great book is to me. Card created a completely new world with two alien races that co-mingled with the human race. Both alien races have amazing cultures and the traditions of the pequininos or "piggies" is just beautiful. Here's the great thing about Card: This book is sci-fi...definitely classified as sci-fi, but it will appeal to anyone. It's main aesthetic is based in the relationships of the characters and the book is deeply philisophical. This is really a beautiful book and I hope that whoever wins it finds a special place for it like I did!

The second book up for grabs ranks right up there with Speaker for the Dead. It's Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Words can't describe this book. It blew my mind the first time I read it and it still does each time I go back to it. Anyone who reads my blog knows my love for Gaiman. His writing is just wonderful and has a certain dark charm to it. American Gods is just one of those once in a lifetime perfect books where all the cards line up right. It's a modern dark urban fantasy set against the background of the sprawls of America as it becomes a battle ground between the ancient gods and the gods of modern society. And that's to put it VERY simply. Beautiful book.

The last book is definitely NOT a favorite of mine...in fact it's a total opposite, but well...I can't just throw a book away, now can I :p Scar Night... I wanted to like this book so bad. In fact, I've already bought the prequel, Lye Street, from Subterranean Press because of the Dave McKean cover. The premise of this book is really cool. There's a city suspended by chains, angels, heaven, hell, murder, magic...sounds great, right? I just can't get into it! I gave it like 5 nights worth of reading and only got about 140 pages into it. It'll be the first "did not finish" of the year. Amazon reviews are decent though so maybe someone else will like it. Please take it so it's not abandoned! As incentive to take this one, I'm including a little Lisa Snellings-Clark hand bookmark (the ones that come packaged with poppets).

So leave a comment with your two favorite books and let me know which of the three books you want to be entered for! If you don't own any of them, enter for all 3 drawings! Even if you do own it, it may make a great gift...so let the entering begin! Drawing will be next Sunday, November 4th at 12:00 Noon US Central time. Drawings open to everybody anywhere in the world :) Spread the word.

NaNo Day 3 And Last Call

2007-11-03T23:55:00.000-06:00

I'm very whiny right now because the NaNoWriMo site is so frickin' slow! And now it's just completely gone down. All I want to do is update my word count :( It's amazing how much you actually strive for that word count by the way once you do this. It's fun to see that little blue bar rise a little bit higher :) I've officially gone up to 6,433 words on my third day. I'm happy with that. I've completed the prologue and 3 chapters so far, so tomorrow should see chapter 4.

For anyone who's considering doing this next year, I have to say...DO IT! It's so much more fun than what I thought it would be and I'm so glad that I stuck with it. I had envisioned this super stressful thing that I would end up dreading every day (and that may indeed happen), but as of now I'm loving this and I find myself craving my own story which is such a neat feeling. It's like my characters and story have taken over and I'm along for the ride. Every day, I sit at my computer thinking "ok, now what the hell am I going to write" and the story just goes. I love it! Now it's not great writing by any means, but the process is fascinating. I'm enjoying it.

I'm also finding where my weaknesses are which is great because I know where I can focus my energies on improving. For instance, I'm HORRIBLE at writing action scenes. I can't write suspense. I just can't do it as hard as I try. Now Bookfool can write suspense! She posted an excerpt on her profile which you can find by clicking on my writing buddies and I was blown away! I wish I could write a scene like that! But it's neat to see where you need improvement and now that I know I'll try to put a little more effort into that area.

In other news, there's only about 12 more hours until the drawing for the 3 books I'm giving away! So here's last call. You have until 12:00 noon Central time on 11/4 to get your comment in if you want to be in the draw for any of the books I'm giving away in the sticky post!

NaNoWriMo Day 2 And Reading Decisions

2007-11-02T15:28:00.000-06:00

Day 2 of NaNoWriMo has come and gone for me. I think I'm putting away my typing fingers for the afternoon after reaching 4,071 words today. I'm happy with what I've got done so far, so I'm taking the rest of the night off. 16 pages: a prologue, chapter 1, and chapter 2 complete...all rough drafts of course...VERY rough! I posted the first part of chapter 2 on my nano profile if anyone's interested, though keep in mind that serious revisions will have to be made!! But revision time is in December, right now we are supposed to just aim at getting 50,000 words typed by November 30th. For some reason the site took out all of the indentations from my paragraphs and the site is way too slow for me to be bothered with going back to fix it, so excuse that. I've put a link to my NaNo profile in my sidebar, so you can follow my progress there if you so desire :)

So on to reading decisions. I've got my reading all mapped out for the month of November and probably the beginning of December. I'll be finishing up the Classics challenge, 2nds challenge, and Four-Legged Friends challenge this month and into next. Here's what November looks like:

-Finish Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
-The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
-Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
-The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
-Varjak Paw by S.F. Said
-The Bleeding Dusk by Colleen Gleason (yay! I won an ARC :)
-A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
-Watership Down by Richard Adams
-Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo

After that, I devised a system for all of these challenges, lol. Ok, so I wrote down all of the books that I've signed up for to read in 2008 and I've already commited myself to 50 books next year!! I made myself feel better by reminding myself that I didn't sign up for the 888 challenge which would've been a 64 book commitment in itself. So, how on earth would I ever choose which book to read next with 50 books to choose from with all of these challenges?? I went with the obvious answer and put all of the titles in a hat and that's how I'll choose what I'm reading in 2008...I'll pick each book out one at a time from the hat! That way it adds a little excitement to me when it comes to what I get to read next. Ok, it's getting bad, huh?

Now I'll go look forward to a great weekend of football with LSU playing Alabama and the Saints against Jacksonville! Both games should be great!

New Challenges And First Day Of NaNo!

2007-11-01T15:58:00.000-06:00

There are a couple of new challenges that are catching my eye out there, so I'm signing up for 2 more! I'm calling 2008 "clean off the the TBR Bookshelf year". So I'm going to go ahead and admit that I've officially lost it by signing up for all these challenges, but it's all in good cause, because I own all of these books. And if I don't succeed in completing all of them, I won't be too hard on myself because at least I got some of the stuff cleared off the shelf.

The first challenge is really cool! It's being hosted by Annie and it's the What's in a Name? Challenge! This one runs all the way from January til December and you pick 1 book from each of the 6 following categories:

1. A Book with a color in it's title: The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint
2. A Book with an animal in it's title: Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest
3. A Book with a first name in it's title: Martin Dressler by Steven Millhauser
4. A Book with a place in it's tile: Baltimore by Mike Mignola (kinda cheating here as Baltimore is actually the name of a character :p)
5. A Book with a weather event in it's title: Storm Front by Jim Butcher
6. A Book with a plant in it's title: Black Orchid by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

The second challenge is Joy's Young Adult Challenge! This one is to read 12 young adult books in 12 months! Sign me up!

1. The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
2. Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
3. Tamsin by Peter Beagle
4. Tithe by Holly Black
5. The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint
6. The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
7. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
8. Freaks by Annette Curtis Klause
9. The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull
10. Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague by Brandon Mull
11. Here, There Be Dragons by James A. Owen
12. Marked by PC and Kristin Cast

More exciting challenge news! Bellezza has plans to host a Japanese reading challenge which I'm really excited and in preparation has a month of NaBloPoMo (national blog posting month) posts all about Japanese literature for us. So stay tuned to her blog for more news on that.

Today was my first day of NaNoWriMo and I got 2,039 words written. I did most of this while at work :p So, basically I'm making myself a paid author. Today was fun...it started out sort of stressful, but once I got into my own story it started taking me away and I can see that this will be a fun...but very stressful month! Only 48,000 words to go....oh Jesus....

RIP II Wrap-Up

2007-10-31T20:05:00.000-06:00

So it's time to bring Carl's RIP II Challenge to an end and I have to thank him for once again putting together such an incredible challenge and being such an incredible host. This challenge certainly added to my enjoyment of this Halloween season and I've read a few books that I'm sure will become a Halloween tradition. Here's what I read:

1. Dracula by Bram Stoker
2. Renfield: Slave of Dracula by Barbara Hambly
3. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
4. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
5. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
6. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
7. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
8. The Homecoming by Ray Bradbury
9. Surrender by Sonya Hartnett
10. Edgar & Ellen: Rare Beasts by Charles Ogden
11. Edgar & Ellen: Tourist Trap by Charles Ogden
12. Wizards: Magical Tales From The Masters of Modern Fantasy
13. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

Click on any of the above highlighted in blue for my review. I'm sure you'll see a few repeats from the above list on my top books of 2007 list. So it's time for this one to come to a close. I'll spend the rest of my Halloween in bed watching the Halloween marathon on AMC. I've enjoyed reading through this challenge with everyone! Happy Halloween!!

Tomorrow I'll be posting my picks for a new challenge hosted by none other than Annie! It's a great one!

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

2007-10-31T16:49:00.001-06:00

I decided to close the RIP II challenge with The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury after having it recommended to me by so many people. Like Debi, I can definitely see this one becoming a Halloween tradition. This is my third Bradbury for the RIP challenge and if there was more than just 6 hours left to the challenge I'd read more! There's a certain honesty to Bradbury's writing. The Halloween Tree exudes memories of Halloween as a child. I fell back into my childhood when reading this one and that chill in the air on Halloween night came alive. He did the same thing with Something Wicked This Way Comes. He truly has a gift for capturing the spirit of the fantastic.

The Halloween Tree is the tale of 9 boys and their adventure through the history of Halloween throughout the world. A group of friends gather on Halloween night, dressed in their costumes, to meet their friend Pipkin for trick-or-treating. Pipkin isn't looking right but sends his friends on their way and tells them to meet him at a house at the end of town...he'll be there soon dressed in his costume. They arrive at a house that's shroud in mystery and after knocking on the door things get strange. They discover a tree...a Halloween Tree that is lit up with hundreds of jackolanterns. A man rises from the leaves surrounding the tree...he's the owner of the house, named Mr. Moundshroud.

Pipkin finally comes running to catch up with his friends when he's swept up by a dark cloud and disappears. Mr. Moundshroud leads the remaining 8 friends on a chase through Halloween traditions celebrated the world over. There journey starts in Ancient Egypt where they witness the traditions associated with Osiris and continues all the way through Mexico's Day of the Dead. In between they visit the gargoyles of Notre Dame and the Druid god, Samhain to name a couple. They travel through all these places to find their friend, Pip, while learning about the traditions associated with their costumes along the way.

There's also a wonderful theme of friendship throughout this book and that's a theme that is seen in everything I've read of Bradbury's. He writes such heartwarming stories in the midst of such creepy stories. The ending to this book is quite endearing and well worth the read just for that.

A favorite line: "When you reach the stars, boy, yes, and live there forever, all the fears will go, and Death himself will die." I thought that was just beautiful. A bit morbid that it should be my favorite line, but the words are just perfect.

Last but not least, the cover of this book is fantastic! May be my favorite cover of the year. If you enbiggen (stole that word from bookfool ;) the picture, the skull is actually made up of the halloween tree and the 8 boys in the book in their costumes! Genius!

I also finished Wizards, which I'm not going to do a full review on because I'm lazy :p I wasn't overly impressed with it. I loved Neil Gaiman's story, The Witch's Headstone and Orson Scott Card's story, Stonefather, was amazing, but aside from that there were 2 or 3 others that I really enjoyed but nothing else really stood out. My problem with reading anthologies is that I'm thrown off by all of the different styles of writing. If I'm reading one author's anthology, that's fine because I can grow accustomed to their style. But with these anthologies, the style changes from story to story and I lose interest and the stories aren't long enough for me to really gain interest. Unless they're really good, which a few were. With Gaiman and Card, I was familiar with their styles, so those I enjoyed.

Anyway, The Halloween Tree...Read it!

A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card

2007-10-30T19:40:00.000-06:00

I've been waiting patiently for two years for this book to come out and I must say that it far surpassed my expectations. Many Orson Scott Card fans were disappointed that we weren't getting our "Christmas at Battle School" story last year for Christmas, but it was well worth the wait and Uncle Orson has given all of his readers a wonderful gift indeed with this new addition to the Ender saga.

A War of Gifts is much more than just the story of Christmas at battle school. It is a story of human connections, the spirit of a child, and a story of facing that moment where the spirit of a child begins to awaken into an adult. The story takes place at battle school during the events of Card's novel Ender's Game. A new child by the name of Zeck has been drafted into the army. Zeck is the child of a minister who claims to be somewhat of a vessel through which God speaks to his congregation. Zeck has been raised in a home where he has been brainwashed against any form of popular culture and is often beaten by his father as a way to cleanse his soul. Zeck's father preaches that Santa Claus is the creation of Satan and is nothing but a false idol paraded to children. Zeck also has a very special gift of being able to memorize anything he hears and is highly intelligent. He's recruited by battle school and is taken against his will...for battle school does not allow the expression of religion for the sake of uniformity.

On Sinterklaas Eve, a young boy in battle school leaves his shoes out in the hope that Sinterklaas will leave him a present and another child soldier in battle school notices the gesture and tries to fulfill the boys wish. Zeck sees this and reports it to the commanders as expression of religion in the hopes that others will turn against him and he can be sent home where he can once again practice his religion. But what escalates is beyond what he had planned for.

This book was just perfect and fans of the Ender series will love it. If you've never read a single book in the Ender series, you'll love this book. You don't have to have read any of the other books to enjoy this one. It's a short one at just 126 pages and I'd recommend it to be on anyone's holiday list. Of course, I'm just a bit partial to Orson Scott Card ;) But it's a great book!

You'd All Be So Proud...

2007-10-30T14:41:00.000-06:00

I went to Barnes and Noble after work today with the intention of buying the new Orson Scott Card book that came out today, War of Gifts, and guess what...I bought it and it was the only book I bought! For those who have read my blog for awhile, you will know that it's a rare occasion that I walk out of a bookstore with only the book that I intended to leave with. It's usually at least a $50 bill. But today, it was only $10.14 with my member discount :)

Oh sure, there were plenty of distractions along the way. As soon as I walked in I was greeted by the beautiful new edition of War and Peace that Dark Orpheus made me aware of. So I drooled over that one for a little while and then put it back on the display slightly more damp than it was before. But I will be buying that one next year. I want to read some more Tolstoy and that edition is just to nice to pass up!

Then I pass the huge dark fantasy/horror display...now how I managed to get past this one without taking any home is beyond me...I just kept saying "no!" Of course now they have a bajillion copies of The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury now that I've gone and ordered it off of Amazon since I couldn't find it there the other night. So if it doesn't arrive from Amazon by tomorrow, I now know that I can go buy the $5.50 copy at B&N for my Halloween night reading pleasure.

So basically, I found a bunch of books that I'll be buying eventually anyway, but the important thing is that I didn't blow my whole paycheck today! Maybe the kid is finally learning how to control spending habits...er, yeah, that's it....

I was very happy to find War of Gifts though! I was preparing myself for disappointment. My poor favorite author never gets the attention he deserves on the day his books are released. So I went to the Sci-Fi section and sure enough there were none there...I kept looking and as I was about to give up I saw a huge pile of the books by the front door! I'm guessing this one actually got some promotion because it's an Ender story. It's a cool little book and I'm sure I'll read all of it's 126 pages tonight. It's what all of us Ender fans have been referring to as "Christmas in Battle School" for the last 2 or 3 years. And that's what it is. It's the story of Christmas (which is banned) during the events of Ender's Game.

In other news, I'm waiting to the very last minute to post my RIP wrap-up because I want to squeeze in The Halloween Tree tomorrow night. I'm also reading Rebecca right now, which is amazing, but I'm only about 200 pages in, so I doubt I'll finish that by tomorrow with the new Orson Scott Card and The Halloween Tree to read. So that one will count as a November read. But I have completed the RIP Challenge and have read 11 books so far. I have one more short story in the Wizards anthology which I'll probably read tonight which will bring me up to 12. That's all my book news for the day!

F@#%ing SPAMers

2007-10-26T17:20:00.000-06:00

I can't stand SPAM...it aggravates me more than anything. Not so much in my email, because I can just delete it, but now they're attacking my blog posts. I have comments all over the place that say "Qbo2il Great Bl4G!" from "Finance House" and such...Get the bleep off my blog. So, unfortunately I had to add the word verification thing to my comments. Sorry guys. It's the only way to keep the spammers out. I was thinking of just changing my blog address to a Wordpress blog because I had been thinking of doing that lately, but when I was checking it out I decided I like good old Blogger and I'm just going to stay here. I'll just have to moderate comments more. Seriously though, SPAMers need to get a life. Like anyone's going to click on that shit and say "oh, this looks like a great company that's totally legit, let me finance my house through them!" Get a life...

In other news, I made it through week three of the job and things are still going great! I've actually started seeing a few clients and a few parents and more importantly than anything, the first paycheck arrived today :) Migraines have been worse than ever this month for some reason (guessing it's new job stress) and today's just about wiped me out! I'm on serious dosages of pain meds right now and can still feel the headache sitting their underneath it all. Hopefully it goes away soon. I have an appointment with my neurologist in a couple of weeks, so I'll talk to her about it.

I won a book from Eva!! She gave away 4 books to people who had commented during her participation in the 24 hour read-a-thon and I won the 4th book! So I'll be getting a copy of Marked soon which I've been wanting to read ever since Stephanie's review way back when. In the tradition of good karma, I'll be doing a giveaway too soon...I like to keep things balanced, so when I when a book, I like to give a book! I just have to think of something cool....until then, peace!

And The Days Roll On....

2007-10-23T13:56:00.000-06:00

God I hope work picks up...So far I have no referrals...zero, zilch, nada. Today was my second day at the school and I literally spent the entire 7 hour day checking my email over and over and over again. Oh wait, I went to Wendy's for a half an hour for lunch. Now keep in mind, I'm at an alternative school, so all of these kids most certainly have behavioral problems...I'm just not getting the referrals. If they haven't come by tomorrow morning, I'm going to ask my supervisor if I can send a memo out to all the teachers letting them know what I do instead of just waiting for referrals from the social worker. That way, if the teachers notice kids who are struggling, they can make referrals to me themselves. Until I get referrals, I have nothing to do and no clients to see.

One good thing that came out of today was that I started brainstorming for NaNoWriMo and I now have a plot, characters, and even a title!! So I started outlining a little bit and I'm really excited about my story now. Looking forward to starting it. It's a fantasy and the title will be A Sunrise in Nowhere. The story was inspired by a quote I read while I was bored and, well...reading quotes online. Here it is:

"No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human breast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed." -Sigmund Freud (From Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria, 1905.)

Update: Look who arrived at their new home today!!!

Time For Another Week & Challenge Completed

2007-10-21T19:54:00.000-06:00

Here it is, another weekend over. Tomorrow I actually start at my new school so I have those first day nerves all over again. Training is officially over. But I'm sure things will be fine, I'm really not too worried. I know I'll start the day in good spirits seeing as both LSU and The Saints came away victorious this weekend!! We also have another cool front coming through and we've been warned that we may actually need light jackets for this one in the afternoon! How cool (literally :p)

This weekend was tons of fun. It was such a blast following everyone's progress for Dewey's 24 hour reading challenge. Congratulations to all of the participants! Everyone blew me away with the amount of time spent reading and the amount of blogging that they did! I'm definitely in next year. I decided to have my own little readathon and got 3 books read this weekend. I read Because of Winn Dixie and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane for the Four Legged Friends Challenge and started Bud, Not Buddy for the Newbery Challenge yesterday. I finished Bud, Not Buddy today which officially ends the Newbery Challenge for me!

Bud, Not Buddy was a great little book. It's the story of a young boy who's in foster care after his mother's death. All of his belongings fit into a suitcase wrapped in twine and include a picture of his mother, some rocks with dates written on them, a blanket, and a photo of a jazz band with a man that he believes to be his father in it. After having horrible luck in his new foster home, Bud runs away in the hopes of finding his father, hoping to finally find acceptance. It was a very endearing story and I was reminded of many of the kids that I've worked with while reading this one. A nice ending to the challenge.

I went hunting all over the place today for a copy of Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree after Debi suggested it during the 24 hour Challenge last night but came up empty handed. I'd really like to read that one on Halloween night. So I ordered it on Amazon today in the hopes that it will get here on time. I also got Kate DiCamillo's new picture book, Great Joy and Jan Siegel's Prospero's Children. So I have a new package of books to look forward to sometime soon ;)

Hope everyone has a great week!

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

2007-10-20T14:23:00.000-06:00

So now I'm all caught up with Kate DiCamillo's novels and I have to say that The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is probably my favorite. It's a beautiful story and like all of her books, it's presented beautifully with amazing illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline.

Edward Tulane is a porcelain rabbit doll that was specially commissioned by Abilene Tulane's grandmother. He's a wonderful doll that has real rabbit fur ears, a gold pocket watch and a whole wardrobe of clothes. Edward admires himself and is quite conceited thinking only of himself. He is loved by Abilene but does not reciprocate that love.

When Abilene's family goes on a cruise Edward is tossed overboard and falls to the bottom of the ocean where he experiences his first emotion aside from selfishness - fear. After spending nearly a year on the ocean floor he is swept into the nets of a fisherman which eventually leads him into the unlikely arms of an elderly woman where he begins to learn the emotion of love. From there, Edward continues his miraculous journey, discovering what love is and learning to cherish the meaning and fragility of human relationships.

Another stellar work by DiCamillo! I'm so happy to have this book in my collection. What I love about DiCamillo's work is that they speak to such a wide audience. There's something in each of her books for everyone and I truly enjoyed this one.

Update: Here are a couple of other great reviews of this book. Becky has a very thorough review that I enjoyed reading, and Carl also has a review of this one that I read some time ago that made me instantly want to pick this one up. I'm glad I finally did!

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

2007-10-20T12:29:00.000-06:00

Well it was no surprise that I enjoyed this little story by Kate DiCamillo. She's become one of my favorite children's authors this year and I'm kind of sad that all I have left to read by her is The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane which is up next. But I have no doubt that she has a long career ahead of her.

Because of Winn-Dixie is a story of friendship. India Opal Buloni has just moved to a new town. Her father is a preacher and while she loves him, she sometimes feels that she's second to his job as "the preacher." Her mother left her and her father at a young age and she doesn't know much about her. She misses her mother and often wonders about her. Suffice it to say that Opal feels quite lonely.

One day Opal goes to the local Winn-Dixie to pick up some groceries for her father and comes across a dog that is causing a raucous in the produce department. When she hears that the produce manager is going to call the pound, she claims the dog as her own. Her father allows her to keep the stray dog who is in need of some care and a beautiful bond forms between Opal and this wonderful dog. Opal begins to meet others in the town through their encounters with Winn-Dixie and she and the dog begin forming bonds and friendships with some wonderful, unlikely friends. Along the way, Opal learns that nearly everyone has ghosts in their pasts; something that they have lost or something that haunts them.

I was so pleased with this book and look forward to finally seeing the movie. I have to admit that I thought the movie looked stupid when I originally saw the previews and I didn't have any desire to see it. But now that I've discovered DiCamillo's writing, I'll most definitely see the movie based on the book. We used to show this movie at the children's psychiatric hospital that I interned at last semester and I can see why. It's a great book, and I'm sure a great movie, for kids who have gone through some kind of loss or troubled time to relate too. DiCamillo is certainly an asset to children's literature.

Sticking With It

2007-10-20T10:50:00.000-06:00

It is such a beautiful day in New Orleans today. This cool front is finally coming through and it's knocked all humidity out of the city...thank God! According to ForecastFox, it's 77 degrees and Sunny right now and it's just perfect. The whole weekend is supposed to be pretty. Then Monday morning we're supposed to get lots of rain and the highs are only supposed to be in the low 70's! Yay, Autumn's finally here :)

So, Sticking with it...the title of the post. Refers to NaNoWriMo. I was considering dropping out of participating. First of all, I had assumed that the new job would consume all of my time, which it will, but I'll make time. Second of all, I don't know if I'm liking my original plot and story line, but I may go with it anyway. But last night I stared and stared at my reminder email from NaNo and thought of how great of a feeling it would be to write a novel and decided to go ahead and register...and I did. Plus, Dark Orpheus is putting the pressure on, so I have to join her :p Is anyone else joining in? If so, here's my profile, add me as a friend!

I also think that I'm going to do my own little read-a-thon today. Everyone's participating in Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon and it sounds like so much fun! I'm not up for a full 24 hours since Saturday has become "catch up on sleep day", but it would be nice to knock out some of these challenge books that have been stressing me out. So I think I'm going to sit outside and enjoy this weather and read my 2 DiCamillo's for the Four-Legged Friends Challenge, my last Newbery Challenge book, and if there's time, one of my Classics Challenge books. Of course this all has to be done before the 8:00 LSU vs. Auburn game tonight!!! We're also electing a new governor here in Louisiana today so I most certainly have to vote. We've never needed a new governor like we do now!

Alright, I'm Back

2007-10-18T20:55:00.000-06:00

I'm ready to come back. The funeral was really nice today. It was so touching to see the amount of people who showed up and the whole ceremony was just a wonderful tribute to a wonderful man. I mentioned the other day that we shared a love of music, me and my uncle. He had one of the most eclectic tastes in music that I knew of and he passed that on to me. He would go from The Sex Pistols to Frank Sinatra and it was common knowledge that Frank Sinatra was his all time favorite singer. So at the end of his funeral as they were bringing the casket out of the chapel they played "My Way" through the speakers and it was just the perfect way to send him off. I'll miss you Uncle Rob.

In the meantime, I haven't gotten much reading done, but the couple of little short books that I've read I enjoyed. Very light reading here :p The first is the second Edgar and Ellen book by Charles Ogden called Tourist Trap and while not great literature by any means, it's a fun little book that was better than the first in the series and can be enjoyed by kids and adults alike. The second was Ray Bradbury's short story The Homecoming which is beautifully illustrated by Dave McKean. I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book if you come across it. I've really grown fond of Bradbury's writing this past year and of course McKean is one of my favorite artists if you can't tell by my header. The Homecoming is a perfect tale for Halloween about an ordinary boy in an anything but ordinary family who just wants to fit in during their Homecoming gathering on All Hallow's Eve.

I'm throwing in an unplanned book next because what the hell, it's time to spice things up! I have Alan Campbell's Scar Night sitting on my shelf and I keep eyeing it up. It wasn't originally on my RIP bonus list, but it's going to be now! I've ordered the prequel, Lye Street, that Subterranean Press is publishing in January 2008 so I'd like to read this one first anyway. Lye Street has a great Dave McKean cover which I can't wait to see in person.

So I'm glad to be back and I'll be making the blog rounds soon. Back to work tomorrow!

Toraware by Robert W. Norris

2007-10-16T15:30:00.000-06:00

I wrote this review Sunday night for Curledup.com with the intentions of posting it yesterday morning...so I'm a day late, but here it is. I loved this book and chances are you won't be able to find it in the bookstore as it was published by a fairly independent press. It is available on Amazon though and I highly recommend it if it sounds like something you'd be interested in. It's a haunting look at a slice of lives set in Japan.

Everything else is settling into place. The funeral is set for Thursday and I'll be off of work for that. Unfortunately I haven't accrued any vacation time yet so it will be an unpaid day off, but I don't mind. I'll be finished training after this week and I'll actually start seeing clients on Monday!

So here's the review:

Human emotions, dark pasts, trials & tribulation, and complicated relationships are nothing new in literature. These are all common themes in countless novels and we’ve seen the same scenario play out time and time again. Every now and then, an author comes along and makes these themes special though and strikes the right notes with his or her readers. Robert W. Norris has done this with his novel Toraware.

Toraware is the story of three people living in Japan trying to find their place in the world. Harlan is a writer and a Vietnam War veteran in his early thirties who is unsure what he wants exactly out of life. He has come to Japan to teach English and to experience a new culture. While there he’s met two women who are also trying to find themselves and each has become connected to Harlan. Sachiko has fallen for Harlan and his writing but her feelings are not reciprocated. Sachiko has her own dark past and her own issues to work through and has a hard time dealing with rejection. Yoshiko and Harlan have a much closer relationship, but Harlan will not open up to her. Yoshiko is also fairly promiscuous, has an alcohol problem and also has a dark past stemming from psychological issues.

Toraware is the tale of a universal need for acceptance. As I mentioned before, we’ve seen these themes in other works, but they are presented beautifully here. Norris’ words match the beauty of the Japanese landscapes that he describes. You can tell that Norris has spent quite a bit of time in Japan as reading the novel is somewhat of a study in the culture of Japan. I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of the novel as Japan has always had a fascinating culture to me. Norris relates to his audience that through language barriers, culture barriers, and gender barriers, we can all relate at the core of what it is to be human.

This book was a great surprise and I look forward to getting to know Norris’ work a little bit better. He’s published a few other books, one of which is actually used to teach English to Japanese students. It’s title is The Many Roads to Japan. Toraware was a book that could be extremely tedious if written by the wrong person seeing as there’s not much action in the book. The book’s main aesthetic is very voyeuristic. The reader is simply a fly on the wall as we experience the characters sorting out their lives. In Norris’ hands, the book is a huge success and a pleasure to read. 4.5/5

Bad Morning

2007-10-15T14:10:00.001-06:00

My uncle passed away this morning. He's had a bad heart for awhile now. He was only 46 years old. He had his first heart attack at 36 years old and had a procedure done that gave him 5 years max to live and he lived for 10. He was one of those guys that had his idiosyncrasies but was such a great guy. He had something that he could relate to with everyone. For me it was music. We would talk music all the time. He has an amazing vinyl collection with unopened copies of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and The Beatles' White Album just to name a couple.

He lived across the street from me with my dad and my grandma and this morning was really rough. I went over there at 7:30 as soon as I heard and it was a rough sight, but we're hanging in there as a family and we'll get through it. I know this is really hard on my grandma...he did so much for her and that was her baby. Same goes for my dad...they had their fair share of fights, but that's what brothers do and in the end, they were best friends.

Work sent me home with stuff to "do at home" and told me they'd pay me for the day. I really lucked out with this job. I know that it's a good one and I couldn't ask for a better supervisor. So I may be a stranger for a couple of days and wanted to explain why I may disappear. I owe a couple of book reviews and they'll come in due time.

Remembering What A Weekend Is

2007-10-12T22:52:00.000-06:00

It's been so long since a weekend actually meant something. For the longest time, the weekends have been the time when I would actually work while I went to school during the week, so I found myself extra excited this morning when I woke up to realize that it was indeed Friday! Add to that this beautiful cool front that came through and it was indeed a good day. It actually feels somewhat like Fall down here for the first time this season with temperatures in the 70's all day and in the 60's now tonight!

My first week proved to be a good one and grown up life hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be so far :p The biggest downer has been the cutting into my reading time...but that's how life goes. I've read all of about 50 pages this week, but that's one thing that I plan on doing this weekend - catching up on reading! I'm also very excited about football this weekend - mostly because of the weather. Football goes with this kind of weather for me. There's nothing that quite matches a nice autumn day, football, and a barbecue. Tomorrow's the LSU game which I'm very excited about as my alma mater is having an amazing, undefeated, #1 ranking season, and then Sunday night is the less than hopeful Saints game...enough said about that one...

Also up for tomorrow is a little goodbye party that the family that I've worked for for the past 6 years is throwing for me. It will be bittersweet, but as I've said before will not be a true goodbye...just a goodbye in the sense that I'll no longer be an employee, but I'll continue to be a friend of the family.

The thing I love most about Fridays is that I'm writing this post at midnight! I'm such a night person...me and daylight don't get along too well, so it makes me happy that I can stay up later than 10:30 for a couple of nights. Of course, by doing this, I'm totally throwing off the sleep schedule that I'm finally getting used to, but oh well! So back to reading, back to TV, back to blog hopping...have a great weekend everyone!

Slipping Into A Radiohead Coma

2007-10-10T16:22:00.000-06:00

How did I manage to not know that my favorite band had a new album coming out today????? Radiohead has never been big on advertising of course and I've been a horrible fan lately and haven't been going on their website, so that may explain it. So here's a weird story of how I came to learn that Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows, came out today. I got an email from LibraryThing announcing that they have a new Wikipedia type program where you can edit book and author info and at the bottom of the email it says something about "you can pay whatever you want for Radiohead's new album and you can do the same for a membership to our site." So of course I ran over to Radiohead's site all giddy and excited. I knew that they had been working on an album for a long time but had no idea that it was finished and was released as a download only today!!! You can download it at www.inrainbows.com and I highly recommend that you do! And yes, you really can pay whatever you want for the album, but please support the guys!

So now I've been listening to it for awhile and I am loving it! For those who are fans, I'm sure you can understand why they're my favorite band. There's no one else like them. There are others that are as talented and as inventive, but they are so unique and have constantly re-invented themselves while keeping an essence to their music that still defines them. I get lost in each in every one of their songs and listening to their music is truly an experience. I've had the chance to see them live only once and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen and I'll never forget it. This album is a wonderful progression in Radiohead's career and combines everything that they've done in the past and then delivers a new spacey, reverb quality that's always been there but is even more pronounced. Ah, I'm loving it. Bands haven't been stopping in New Orleans too much since Katrina, but when Radiohead tours again, I'm hoping that they come visit us. If they don't, I'll just have to visit them. I'd love to hear some of Thom Yorke's solo album, The Eraser, performed live as well. If you're looking for some amazing new music at a great price (you name it), check Radiohead's new album out. Each song is unique and there's something for everyone. And of course, long time fans will adore it.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

2007-10-08T21:53:00.000-06:00

I love the feeling of picking up a book, getting lost in its pages, and actually being transported into it's world; smelling it's smells, feeling the weather, seeing the sights, feeling the goosebumps. I felt like a child again when I was reading Something Wicked This Way Comes. Remember the creepiness of October as a child? Can you recall the strange attraction to a house of mirrors? There aren't many freak shows around these days, but as a child the unknown and the bizarre was always a little scary because it was new...We still weren't convinced that monsters didn't exist. And while we grow out of that as we grow older, we remember those feelings which allows for the pleasure of October and allows for a little bit of fear to become fun as an adult. Something Wicked This Way Comes was fun!

This is Ray Bradbury's telling of the tale of two young boys who are the best of friends, Jim and Will. Jim and Will have always done everything together and have shared a wonderful friendship. They are next door neighbors and are known to sneak out together to go on adventures. Will's father is another character that we get to know throughout the book. Will's father is a janitor at the local library and fathered Will at an older age and is bothered by that now that he is an older parent.

One night in October, Jim, Will, and Will's father hear carnival music playing. Carnivals usually come in the summer and it's odd that one should be coming now. But there are pieces of paper that are found that advertise that a carnival is in fact arriving. Jim and Will sneak out to investigate and discover one of the oddest and creepiest carnivals they have seen and it's proprietor is a man called Mr. Dark aka The Illustrated Man, who is covered in tattoos. Jim and Will first witness something strange in the carnival when one of their teachers goes through a bizarre hall of mirrors and comes out of it in a different state. Things really take a turn for the worst when they witness the calliope in the center of the carnival...the source of the strange music that beckoned them to the carnival. What they witness is a horrific scene that catapults them into a game of cat and mouse against the sinister Mr. Dark and his band of carnival freaks.

This was a perfect October read, perfect for the RIP challenge, and my first read for the Seconds Challenge! My first Bradbury was Fahrenheit 451, which I loved, but this one was so much better! There will definitely be a third Bradbury reading for me...thinking about Dandelion Wine as I've heard great things about that one. Bradbury's writing was just beautiful in this book. I thought to myself, you could just turn to any page in this book and find a perfect passage, so I did just that...flipped to a random page and found the first sentence. Here it is: "The night was sweet with the dust of autumn leaves that smelled as if the fine sands of ancient Egypt were drifting to dunes beyond the town." Now come on...how many books can you open to a random page and find a quote like that!

Day The First! & The Cholera Epidemic

2007-10-08T15:15:00.000-06:00

Today was the oh so exciting first day at the new job and thank God I like to read! I was greeted this morning with three 200 page manuals...my reaction (in my head of course) was a very un-enthused "yay" as the coffee had not yet done it's job. The manuals actually aren't all that bad though because they lay out the three different therapeutic programs that we offer kids.

Here's a quick recap on what I'll be doing. I'll be place at a school that's only 5 minutes away from my house which is great news! The original place I was going to be at was about 40 minutes away from my house. I'm an employee of the state though, not an employee of the school system. The school I'm working at is a middle school for kids who have been expelled from other schools. My job is to assess and diagnose kids who the teachers and social workers think may "have a problem." If they do indeed "have a problem" I'll do a 12 week counseling program with them. The program is very structured and we have a program for kids with depression, behavioral disorders, and just this year, we added anxiety disorders.

My supervisor is really cool which made me happy. Life's so much easier when you like the people you're working with. The atmosphere is laid back and all of my nervousness that has built up over the last month has gone out the window. In fact, reading through the anxiety counseling manual today actually helped me! Go figure! So I'm really excited to be there and it will really be nice when that first check comes in!

Back to books tonight. Should have a Something Wicked This Way Comes review up soon...hopefully tonight.

Oh! And did you see that Oprah picked Love in the Time of Cholera as her new book club selection? I'm so happy that I bought my copy before they put her damn name on the cover! I have mixed feelings about it. I'm happy that so many people will read the book now, because it's an absolutely amazing book, but at the same time it bugs me and I don't know why...we've talked about this before on here. What is it about the "Oprah's Book Club Selection" sticker that irks people (like me). For instance, I still haven't bought a copy of The Road or Middlesex because I can't find a copy without her name on it! It's especially aggravating when there's no mention of the Pulitzer prize on the cover, but Oprah's name is on the cover. Oh well...it's spilled milk. I really don't have a problem with Oprah...she does some great things for the world and even has some great shows occasionally, but there is just something about Oprah and all of these books that doesn't work for me and I don't even know what it is! It's like she's taking over the world. Another very cool piece of Love in the Time of Cholera news...I saw a poster for the theatrical version in the movie theaters the other night! How cool!

Two More Books And A Movie

2007-10-04T01:09:00.000-06:00

I actually feel accomplished today! I signed up for all of my benefits for the new job, read 3 books (though one was a picture book and one was a short little 111 pg, fun book) and saw a movie. I guess it's my last hurrah before heading off into the real world on Monday. So here are a few more reviews.

Shaun Tan's The Arrival may be the most beautiful book I've ever seen. Tan is an illustrator/author that I learned of through Carl. Carl highly recommends The Red Tree and I haven't picked it up yet because I haven't been able to find it. Eventually I'll pick up a copy through Amazon. The Arrival is a 128 page picture book that tells the story of an immigrant. It could be the story of any immigrant going to any new land, but it happens to be the story of a man heading off to a bizarre yet beautiful world that is so unfamiliar to anything that we know of today to set up a home for his wife and child. The food, the creatures, the jobs, the way of life, the way of travel...it's all new and bizarre and told beautifully through Tan's haunting, sepia toned artwork. Each villager that he meets has their own story of how they came to the land and what they left behind. What Tan presents is an homage to every migrant that's ever traveled to a new world and set up a new life for themselves. The story is told through pictures only - no words, and no words are needed. This is a beautiful book and I can't help but feel that every family should have a copy on their bookshelf.

The next book is the first in a series. It's the Edgar & Ellen series by Charles Ogden, written for young adults/children and the first book is Rare Beasts. This book was such a delight to read :) It's like A Series of Unfortunate Events (which I never really got into) meets Tim Burton. Edgar & Ellen are mischievous twins who live in a town called Nod's Limbs in a dreary, towering house. All of Nod's Limbs is considered the "good side of town" except for the block that Edgar & Ellen live on...that would be the "bad side of town" thanks to them. Their parents left on "vacation" a while ago and never returned and they are now left to themselves with the only adult around being the creepy groundskeeper. Edgar and Ellen both have pasty white skin and black hair plastered to their heads and where their red and white striped footie pajamas all the time. Their favorite past time is basically torturing each other, but when Ellen is about to slice her brother open with a pendulum after finding him in a game of hide and seek, they decide that they are bored with their normal games. So of course, they go to aggravate their one eyed hairball of a pet named, well...."pet". Pet is watching his favorite TV show that's talking about exotic animals and the twins get a wonderful idea. If they could find their own exotic animals to sell, they could make tons of money to buy things to wreak havoc on the town with! So they kidnap all of the town's pets and do a little altering of them and try to resell them as....Rare Beasts. This looks to be a great series and very light but fun reading. There are 4 books out in the series so far and I'll be picking the others up. Edgar and Ellen are also Target's Halloween mascots this year! So I'll probably go out tomorrow and buy the halloween DVD special that's for sale there as well as the pop-up book (I love pop-up books!)

And finally, I saw an absolutely amazing movie tonight! Finally, Across the Universe was released here. For those who don't know, it's a musical focusing on the Vietnam war era and features over 33 Beatles songs sung by the actors throughout the movie. This movie was just phenomenal, and if it's playing near you...go see it! I've never gotten goosebumps so many times in 2 hours. It's beautifully done with so much emotion, power and meaning put into it and I was just amazed at the genius put into this movie. It was visually stunning and one of those movies that you just get lost in. I could see this movie 10 more times in the theater and I'm sure it would still bring waves of emotion over me each time. Check it!

Surrender by Sonya Hartnett

2007-10-03T16:30:00.000-06:00

Ok...it was bound to happen after the string of 5 star reviews I've had. Let's talk about Surrender. I've had this book sitting patiently on my shelf for awhile and I've been anxiously awaiting it. It's won numerous awards and I'm not saying that it's not deserving of them. The book is absolutely beautifully written. Hartnett certainly has a gift when it comes to writing, and her story is a smart one. Here's my problem...I can't remember the time that I've read a more depressing story! I don't mind depressing novels at all. In fact, as messed up as it may sound, I usually prefer them. But this is the most dreary, without hope, not a single ray of light novel that I have read in a while.

The book begins with our main character Anwell, who later takes on the name Gabriel (after the archangel), on his deathbed at the age of 20. To show the beauty of her words, I give you the opening passage:

"I am dying: it's a beautiful word. Like the long slow sigh of a cello: dying. But the sound of it is the only beautiful thing about it."

And from this point, the novel gets progressively MORE dreary as Anwell tells the story of his short 20 years and what led up to his current state. Anwell comes from an abusive home and there is something that he has done in his past that is a constant haunt to him...something that is normally construed as evil, but was done in a moment of panic by a boy who is a good natured soul. Anwell meets a boy named Finnigan one day and forms a friendship based on a pact: Anwell will do only good, Finnigan will do only evil. This is Anwell's chance at redemption for his past. Soon, a string of arson attacks plagues the town that Anwell lives in and he realizes how dangerous his new friend is. Anwell's only other friend is his dog, Surrender, and I have to leave the rest of the plot synopsis here as the tale would be given away to say more.

You can see why I was drawn to this story. I still maintain that it's a well written novel, a powerful and memorable story, a heartbreaking story, and deserving of it's praise. But it left me feeling so down and there was never really a moment in the book where there was any ray of light for this character. As you can probably tell, this novel deals with mental illness and of course I have a special place for characters whose lives are deeply affected by that. I think that's what was most disturbing for me...no redemption was offered. I understand that many people with mental illness do indeed suffer every day, but this was just such a bleak scenario where things just got worse and worse. As a counselor, I'd like to look towards a ray of light and trying to find hope.

So there it is...has anyone else read this one? I'd be curious to hear other people's thoughts on it.

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

2007-10-01T22:41:00.000-06:00

What's left to say about Neil Gaiman? There won't be any surprises here. Fragile Things is another masterpiece by the master of modern fantasy. For those who don't know, Fragile Things is another collection of Neil Gaiman's short fiction and poetry. This is my second journey into his short stories this year. My first was with his book, Smoke and Mirrors which I adored. In fact, I'd place Smoke and Mirrors higher on my list of favorite Gaiman books than Fragile Things. This isn't to say that the stories in Fragile Things weren't superb, I just enjoyed the ones in Smoke and Mirrors even more.

But this review is focusing on Fragile Things! Once again, he starts off the book with a wonderful introduction in which he gives some background on each one of the stories and poems in the book which I think is so cool. It adds a special little touch to each story to know why it was written or the inspiration for it..."lagniappe" as we call it in New Orleans. For Smoke and Mirrors I gave detailed descriptions for each story that I enjoyed, and I'm not going to do that for this one, because this review would be ridiculously long. But I really did enjoy every story in this book! Not all of them were favorites, but each one was an enjoyable read.

Gaiman's main gift is that his stories are so unique. They aren't something that you've heard before. Even his retelling of classic tales become brand new. He's a writer who can have the month of October tell a story, can personify an albums worth of Tori Amos songs, can perfectly describe the atmosphere of New Orleans on a muggy night, can create a beautiful poem that you want stenciled onto your walls, tell countless stories that all haunt and remain vivid, and best of all they're all packaged neatly into one beautiful book with a novella at the end that revisits Shadow from my favorite novel of his, American Gods.

I don't do well with short stories usually, but Gaiman makes anything work. I just love reading his short stories and hope that we have more collections to see from him in the future...though of course some more novels would be nice too. I'm anxiously awaiting the Graveyard Book now! So guess what...this actually concludes the RIP challenge for me! Well, it concludes my official reads. I signed up for 6 official reads, so I'm done my obligation. Now, I'm reading just for fun and will continue to read nothing but bonus RIP reads for the rest of the month of October!

I Wait All Year For This

2007-10-01T00:39:00.000-06:00

Happy October Everyone! Yes, it's a holiday in my little world. October has always been my favorite month and just the name of the month itself is beautiful. It brings to mind warm colors and a chill in the air, pumpkin spice lattes and old tattered books, Tim Burton movies and Tori Amos. Everything in it's right place. This year has been made extra special by two new additions to the usual mix. The first is the RIP Challenge which I'm truly loving. Not only has my reading been focused on the eerie and gothic, but I've also penned a couple of tiny stories in the horror vein. Secondly, Lisa Snellings-Clark has kicked off her Play In The Dark sale and.....WOW! It's just amazing. Go see for yourself. Keep checking as she has said on her blog that she will continue to add things over the next few days. I definitely won't be able to afford everything that I want, but I did manage to pick up a skeleton poppet already!

So for the rest of the month, I will continue my October traditions of surrounding myself with as many gaudy Halloween decorations as I can find, watching as many cheesy horror movies as I can, being outdoors as much as possible to enjoy the Fall weather (whenever it gets here), drowning in Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and of course...reading as many "October books" as possible. And after this comes Thanksgiving and Christmas! The end of the year is always my favorite...geesh, it's the end of the year!

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

2007-09-28T22:13:00.001-06:00

I've read so many wonderful books by first time novelists this year, and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield will certainly join the ranks of Audrey Niffenegger and Elizabeth Kostova. This is another one of those unread treasures that has been sitting on my shelf and it makes me wonder what other visionary treats lie there in waiting.

The Thirteenth Tale is a prime example of storytelling at it's top form. Margaret Lea is a young woman who works at her father's bookshop which specializes in rare and antiquarian books. She's been surrounded by books throughout her life and has grown comfortable with the classics such as Jane Eyre, Middlemarch, The Woman in White, etc. and has shied away from more contemporary literature. That is, until she is summonsed by Vida Winter, a top selling novelist with a mysterious past who has requested that Margaret record the story of her life. Margaret is a bit leary of the commission, but accepts and finds that she must face her own ghosts while recording the ghosts of Ms. Winter's past - a past that reveals that the truth is often stranger than fiction.

There are so many things that I loved about this book. The characters are wonderful. Vida Winter is someone that I wish truly existed just so that I could sit in her library in front of her fireplace and listen to her tell me her stories. But of course, the wonderful Diane Setterfield, who wrote Vida Winter's character does exist ;) The storytelling aspect of this novel was just perfect. There wasn't a single moment in the novel when I was bored. There's constantly a hook to grab you and the story is always appealing.

I haven't read Daniel Wallace's book, Big Fish, but much of this novel reminded of a gothic version of the film. It's a tale of a past that's truly bizarre, yet grounded in fact. This novel could easily be translated to the big screen and make a beautiful film by the way. Setterfield paints a very vivid picture in her descriptions of the landscapes, her characters appearances, the libraries, etc.

I'm so glad that I've finally joined the other half of the world that's read this book! I've been saying this a lot lately, but here's another author that I really look forward to following throughout her career. Setterfield certainly has a promising future ahead of her if she continues to turn out novels that deliver as well as this one did.

I leave you with a truly devilish passage from the lips of Vida Winter that's not essential to the plot, but I had an evil grin on my face during this particularly RIP-ish scene:

"Picture a conveyor belt, a huge conveyor belt, and at the end of it a massive furnace. And on the conveyor belt are books. Every copy in the world of every book you've ever loved. All lined up. Jane Eyre. Villette. the Woman in White...Middlemarch. And imagine a lever with two labels, On and Off. At the moment the lever is off. And next to it is a human being with his hand on the lever. About to turn it on. And you can stop it. You have a gun in your hand. All you have to do is pull the trigger. What do you do?"

Other Reviews:

Chris (Book A Rama)

Thoughts On A Thursday

2007-09-27T20:41:00.000-06:00

I've noticed that my mind has been somewhat stagnant lately and it's a very unsettling feeling. Life needs to move on. I feel like I've spent the last few months just waiting. Waiting for Megan to come back home, waiting to start my job, waiting for some spark to ignite, and I just need things to happen. And I know they will, and I know that they will happen very soon. In fact, I'm going into work on Tuesday to fill out all of my tax forms and payroll stuff so that I can start on the following Monday and there's talk of Megan coming for another visit soon.

I really have enjoyed the time off of school and work, but I'm not the type of person who takes idle time well. Sure, I say that I'd love to just lay in bed all day and read, and that certainly appeals to me, but I need something else in my life. Things will get better with the start of work. This funk has been going on for awhile and I just couldn't figure it out, and it all sort of made sense all of a sudden when I was talking to Megan today and she said "We never talk about things for hours anymore." I asked what she meant and she brought up how we used to talk about various topics ranging from philosophy to hamburgers for hours on end and it all clicked. Most of those conversations were brought on by stuff that happened during my day or hers. We still talk about the things that happen during her day, but when it comes to my day, there's not much to report on these days. I used to talk about what happened at the internship or what happened in class or what I learned that day and it would spark a long conversation and we'd go on forever. I miss that. I miss those long conversations. I miss the academic life already, or my days at my internship, and I just can't wait to get back into the counseling profession. Just a week and a half to go and I'll be there again.

God, this is a depressing post, and it really wasn't meant to be. I don't necessarily feel depressed, just sort of in a mist...waiting...but at the same time, once my job starts, I'll no doubt be bitching about how much I miss my reading time and how much I miss blogging. I've grown so attached to being in the blogiverse (I like that word :p) all day that I don't know what I'll do without checking in on everyone all day. But I'm sure that's how I'll spend my evenings...checking in with friends and burying my nose in books. Actually, come to think about it, Megan and I do still have some fun conversations and they're usually related to things I read in blogs...or on the latest book I'm reading. You would all be surprised how much Megan knows about you ;) But it's a sign of how much I truly enjoy everyone's "company". I talk like you're all friends that I see in person every day!

One spark of the day on a book related note. After hearing of them from Stephanie, I decided to submit a review to Curledup.com to see if they'd consider me as a reviewer. Well, they apparently liked what they saw and are sending some books my way this weekend! Free books should cheer me up. I don't know what I've got myself into with all of these challenges and now I've commited to reviews...I might have to admit defeat eventually, who knows...

Two More Challenges For 2008 (But They're Mini...)

2007-09-25T16:48:00.000-06:00

They're "mini-challenges" as our host, Becky, calls them, so I don't feel so bad joining yet another challenge ;) These are two very cool challenges and actually fit quite nicely into the reading I had already planned for myself for next year.

The first challenge is inspired by Masterpiece Theater's announcement that they will be showing all six of Jane Austen's BBC Productions next year! If you haven't done so yet, I recommend heading over to their site to sign up for their email list, because if you do you are entered into a drawing to win one of 100 Jane Austen book box sets! Becky's challenge to us is a simple one: In 2008, either read or watch two of Jane Austen's books and then write a post about it! I had already planned on reading Northanger Abbey next year, as that one sounds like my cup of tea, and I'm adding Persuasion as my second Austen book. I'll also be watching all of Masterpiece Theater's airing of the BBC productions as I love all of them!

The second challenge is to read any 2 books by C.S. Lewis AND any 2 books by J.R.R. Tolkien! How cool is that for a challenge?! I had already planned on re-reading the Narnia books for the series challenge and Cardathon challenge, and I'll be breaking in my beautiful new boxset of Tolkien books from Carl for the other part of the challenge by re-reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I'll probably do that as part of the Once Upon a Time challenge assuming that it takes place again ;) Of course, you're not required to read 10 books for this challenge like Mr. Over-achiever here...just 4!

Anyone else joining in? Head over to Becky's blog to sign up! It looks like we have all of 2008 to complete this...am I right?

Heart -Shaped Box by Joe Hill

2007-09-24T23:24:00.000-06:00

So here's my first foray away from vampires for the RIP challenge, and I'd say that overall it was a successful voyage. Heart-Shaped Box will most probably not make it onto the list of favorite books of the year, but it's a hell of a debut novel for Joe Hill. The book didn't start off all that great for me. It centers around a rock star who is a collector of dark and occult-like objects such as sketches of the seven dwarfs drawn by John Wayne Gacy and a smut film; plays death metal music, and dates goth chicks. So it inherently had a few aspects too it that were just a bit too cliche for my taste while the story was being set up. They were mostly too cliche for my taste because I was a part of this culture as a teen and in my early college days and I guess I'm still there at heart...just don't dress the part. It was just a bit overdone. But once Hill got comfortable with his story and the whole goth, shock thing was dropped and we met our real, vulnerable characters, I really enjoyed the rest of the ride.

Heart-Shaped Box is the story of a rock star with a past. Jude Coyne has lived a life of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Needless to say he's been with many women throughout his career and has taken to naming some of them after the states that he met them in. His current live-in girlfriend is Georgia and Jude's found more comfort in her than he's found in anyone else in awhile. His only other true relationships are with his two German Shepperds. He hasn't spoken with his father in over 30 years after suffering a horrible childhood with him, two of his best friends and former band mates are dead, and his only other friend is his assistant, but he's more of a secretary than a friend.

So here's the RIP part...As I mentioned before, Jude's a collector of all things macabre and can't turn down an offer of something new to add to his collection. The assistant friend mentioned above one day finds a suit for sale on an eBay-like auction site. Here's the catch - the suit belongs to a dead man who has been haunting the house that it occupies. The auction says that the man never got to wear this suit in his earthly life and will follow the suit wherever it goes. Jude buys the suit for $1000, essentially buying a ghost to add to his collection. Well, Jude gets his ghost. The suit arrives in a black heart-shaped box. Shortly after Jude awakens at night to find a man sitting in his hallway wearing the suit with his eyes scribbled out and swinging a razor blade on a chain. But there's more to the ghost than Jude knows and both his life and Georgia's is at stake...as the cover says "sooner or later the dead catch up..."

I've heard plenty of people say that this novel scared the crap out of them and kept them up all night. I can't say that it did that for me, but that's nothing against the author. I'm rarely truly freaked out by books. This book did have my heart pounding with suspense at certain parts and I was definitely flying through some pages. I tend to not scare easily though. The only things that truly frighten me are "jump out at you" moments, so movies and haunted houses will do the trick! Now there were scenes in this novel that repulsed me (and I guess repulsion is a cousin of fear) and be warned that there are topics that arise in this book that are quite disturbing. But I think that Hill handled everything well, and I have to say that I will be reading Mr. Hill's next novel whenever it is published. I know that he has a collection of short stories coming out soon called 20th Century Ghosts and it is already available in the UK!

*Oh, and a quick note totally unrelated, Lisa Snellings-Clark has Orange Poppets Available!

My Reading Spot And A Package Arrives

2007-09-24T16:31:00.000-06:00

Today's been the perfect, gloomy, RIP reading day and I spent it finishing up Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box. I'll post my full review later. It was my least favorite of my RIP reads so far, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't a good book. It started off kind of weak for me, but it got progressively better and it really hooked me about half way through...but like I said, full review coming later. Anyway, I thought I'd share my reading spot with you and invite anyone else who would like to to do the same...because, well...I'm a bit of a voyeur when it comes to people's books and anything associated with them :p

My new reading spot is one of my favorite things about this house that we're renting. For the first time in my life, I have a back patio. I've always wanted one. It has a tin roof, and on a rainy day like today, you just can't beat the sound of soft rain on a tin roof for reading weather. We have a Wisteria vine that is sadly not in bloom starting off and I'm hoping that it will vine itself throughout the wooden beams of the patio and there's a Bougainvillea behind the swing that you can't see in the picture. We have two swings which is odd, but I like to read on the swing that I took the picture from where the little skeleton guy is sitting. Part of the reason is because our neighbor is a garden freak and I like the view of her plants and the birds that visit them. So here it is, my reading spot...complete with hanging eyeballs and a skeleton for Halloween.

So onto the package arriving. No, it was not a package of books! It was a package from Lisa Snellings-Clark..I know, another shocker. I am so pleased with this purchase! They're amazing. It's a pair of Harlequin candlestick holders painted in shades of blue and gray and they are so much more beautiful in person than I imagined them to be. They're huge! About 18 inches tall. She offers these in bronze and silver sometimes during her sales for $30 a piece and after actually seeing them, this is an amazing price. So I highly recommend them next time they're available ;)

OK, that's it for me until it's book review time. Off to get ready for the Saints game...God I hope it's better than the last two...I can't take any more games like those.

Invasive Procedures by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston

2007-09-20T23:18:00.000-06:00

You might say that I lucked out when I stumbled across my "favorite author". Orson Scott Card manages to publish about two to three books a year, has about 50 books under his belt, and has written books, poetry, and short stories in just about every genre imaginable. His first publication of this year was Space Boy (my review), a very limited run by Subterranean Press, that was enjoyable but doesn't even compare to his latest collaboration with screenwriter Aaron Johnston, Invasive Procedures.

Invasive Procedures is the story of the dangers of genetic manipulation. It can certainly be classified as science fiction as Card dots his i's and crosses his t's when it comes to the science aspect, but I'd consider this one more of a bio-medical/political thriller. The setting is Los Angeles in the near future. Geneticist George Galen has created a group of super humans called "Healers". Galen is the villain of the novel, but he's a charming villain, the most dangerous kind. His Healers are giants, around 7 feet in height, have the bodies of gods, and go throughout the community recruiting the sick and homeless in a cult like fashion for Galen's genetic experiment - to help the human race evolve.

Here's where the story gets interesting. Galen has developed a virus that cures deadly genetic diseases such as Parkinson's, Sickle-Cell Anemia, etc. Viruses work by attaching to DNA and changing their structure and Galen has developed a virus that will do just that for these diseases. However, the virus he has developed is deadly to the general population and causes near immediate death. It can save the life of the few who need it, but can cause the death of the many to whom it is toxic. In steps Frank Hartman. Frank Hartman has been recruited by the Biohazard Agency, an FBI-like governmental agency, to develop an anti-virus to or vaccination to Galen's virus. Galen soon realizes the plans that the government has to stop his advancement of the human race and one thrilling novel ensues.

I've always said that I love Card for his characters, and this novel is no exception. Frank Hartman is one of the strongest heroes I've read in a while. Joining him in his race against Galen are Galen's test subjects, a group of homeless people that he picks up, offering them a hot meal and a bed, and while he does give them that, they also get much more than what they thought they were in for.

Dolores is my favorite of this group. She is an elderly homeless woman with no family who slept on a playground before Galen picked her up. She has extremely low self esteem, but a wonderful sense of humor and was a delight to read and my heart went out to her. Nick and Jonathan were two younger punk kids who were homeless heroin addicts. Both put up a tough front, but Card shows us the young kid inside just begging for help and love. Their story was touching as well. Hal, I had no sympathy for! Hal is a drunk who is arrogant and loud when he's picked up and remains that way throughout the book...he just got on my nerves. And Byron is the last of the group. Byron was mistaken for a homeless person, but is really a tax attorney whose car broke down and he just needed a lift. He's a great guy and another strong character.

Put all of these wonderful characters together along with a doctor forced to perfom surgery on all of them against her will while her child is held at ransom along with one of the most thrilling and forward moving story lines I've read in awhile, and you get a book that is heart stopping and very meaningful in these days of lightning speed medical advancement...not that I think we're at risk of something like this ever actually happening.

This one just came out Tuesday, so it should be well stocked in most bookstores. I highly recommend as I usually do with most books :p But this one really was a 5 out of 5. It's based on an Orson Scott Card short story originally published in 1979 by the name of "Malpractice." OK, now back to the RIP Challenge!

Updates, Updates

2007-09-20T14:37:00.000-06:00

As another tropical disturbance approaches Louisiana, I'm reminded that life is always uncertain. As much as I complain about what Katrina left us with down here and how it seemed to uproot life, it has done some positive things. Mainly, I've learned that there's no use in harping on things. Life is going to do what it's going to do and plenty of that is out of my control. What's out of my control is exactly that. So...something out of my control has happened, and I'm going with the flow...my start date for my new job has been pushed back to October 8th due to the state licensure board not meeting on the date that we originally thought they were going to. I can't start my new job until I have my licensure number, so now I have to wait until the beginning of the next pay period to start, which is October 8th. Originally, I was upset because I was anxious to get in and get started, but I'm just going to enjoy the extra time off while I have it. I still have my other job, so I'll just continue there until the 8th.

In other news, not a whole lot lot has been going on. There have been a couple of new arrivals at the house. The first was my little black poppet who is so very, very cool and fits in nicely with the purple poppet. I think that black and purple will join forces and be mascots together for the remainder of the RIP challenge as they seemed to do well together for The Historian. I also picked up the new Orson Scott Card book a couple of days ago and I'm almost finished that and it's amazing! But that should be no surprise coming out of my mouth. It's called Invasive Procedures, and I should have a review up either tonight or sometime tomorrow.

Should be going to see Across the Universe tomorrow. Anyone else going to see that one? It looks like it's really going to be a treat! I've been looking forward to this one for awhile now. It's rare that films this imaginative make it to the big screen and I'm hoping that it does well.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

2007-09-18T14:38:00.000-06:00

The Historian is one whopper of a book, but it's worth every page and every word. It is the haunting tale of a young woman, a historian, who one day finds a book and some letters on the shelf of her father's library. The book is very old and is blank, except for a woodcut image in the middle of a dragon and the word "Drakulya". She asks her father about the book and the letters and Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian unfolds.

Paul, the narrator's father who is also a historian, one day discovers the previously mentioned book and consults his dissertation adviser, Professor Rossi about it. He learns that his professor has also been "given" one of these mysterious books and has done some extensive research on it. Danger lies in the acquiring of these books. Rossi's research has taught him that Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad the Impaler, aka Dracula, still walks among us as a vampire. Shortly after revealing this to Paul, Rossi disappears. Paul digs deeper and deeper into the Dracula legend and history and begins to learn that there is more truth than myth to vampires. Along the way, he meets Helen, an anthropologist from Romania who is also interested in vampires and Dracula. Paul leaves America to find Rossi as he is convinced that the book leaves a clue as to his whereabouts and Helen joins him in his travels.

The above paragraph has happened in the past, but takes up the majority of the book. It is told through a very long letter that the narrator's father has written her. The narrator herself is on her own hunt. She certainly has her own interest in the hunt for Dracula, but she is hunting for more knowledge on her father's mysterious past, and even more so, she is hunting for the mother that she never knew.

The Historian hits all the right marks. It's written very well and has a very gothic feel to it. It was an extremely creepy book and the atmosphere was just perfect...old books left in dark places, empty libraries at night, old gothic buildings with people lurking in the shadows, and all of the scenes in Turkey, Hungary, and Romania were just perfect. In fact, I've never really considered wanting to visit any of these places until Kostova wrote about them and some of the amazing architecture, churches, cafes, and festivals in these countries.

I loved Kostova's characters...or loved to hate some of them. Either way, she knows how to create an interesting character. The love story between Paul and Helen was remarkable and something that I cherished and enjoyed every time I got a peek at it. I wished that I could've spent a little more time with the narrator of the book, and that is one of my only criticisms of the novel...that I didn't get to know her better. The different characters that Paul and Helen meet along the way that help them in their journey were wonderful -Rossi, Turgut, and Stoichev were all classic old scholars whom I really enjoyed and would love to sit down with and have a cup of tea and study their libraries.

For me, this novel was everything that a horror novel should be. The subject matter is certainly there - vampires, more specifically, the grand-daddy of all vampires, Dracula. There's a constant sense of foreboding, mystery, shadows lurking in the darkness, being a step away from a dark discovery. The best way to describe the book is that it is a modern gothic, mystery novel. Some may say that things fall into place a little too easily in this one...and at times they do, but it's fiction...and in fiction, that's just fine with me. Kostova has created a riveting novel that kept me up many nights because I just couldn't put it down. I can't wait to see what she does with the rest of her career!

It Can't Be Stopped

2007-09-15T21:25:00.000-06:00

My God! Hi, my name's Chris, and I'm a bookaholic....I made a deal with myself that I wasn't going to buy anymore books until after the RIP Challenge. The reason being, I thought it would be nice to see what my TBR bookshelf would look like with the 20 books I signed up for taken off of it with no books put back on it to take the space up again...yeah, not happening. Last night, I decided to go to Barnes and Noble to get "just the two books that I didn't have for the Four Legged Friends Challenge" and instead came home with 5 new books. It could've been worse though. Anyway, here are the new acquisitions.1. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen - I first heard about this book from Nancy aka Bookfool. She gave it an awesome review and it sounded like something that I'd like. And the cover is really cool! It has tons of great reviews, and anything set in the south that has to do with magic is fine by me. And Barnes and Noble had it at an incredible price (they're really promoting this one).

2. The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull - I'm very leary about this one, but I'm hoping it's good! I had planned on buying this one just because of the author's name, but didn't think it was coming out until October! But when I saw it on the shelf, well...I had to get it. Brandon Mull is the author of the Fablehaven series which I love and learned of through Orson Scott Card. So when I heard that he was writing this other book, I knew I'd be picking it up when it came out...and I did.

3. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - I've become addicted to Marquez's writing with just one book. I read Love in the Time of Cholera about a month ago and I really enjoyed it...my review here. But I've found that the book has come back to haunt me. I find myself thinking of Marquez's writing over and over again and I want to revisit it. I have a feeling that anyone who's read his work will understand. I enjoyed Love in the Time of Cholera when I first read it, but it's really become a masterpiece too me as it's sunk in. Quite a few people recommended that I read One Hundred Years of Solitude, so I picked this one up to appease my craving to jump back into his writing. It sounds like a magical book and he won the Nobel Prize for this one as well. I think I'll add this one to the Seconds Challenge as a bonus. Only thing I don't like....it has a stupid Oprah sticker on it :/

4. Varjak Paw by S.F. Said - I'm so excited about this one! I'm reading this one for the Four Legged Friends Challenge. I first heard of this one through Nymeth awhile back when she discovered it in a bookstore. It's a children's/young adult book about a cat and it's illustrated by Dave McKean!! And there are lots of illustrations! I also saw that there is a sequel out which is also illustrated by McKean...yay!

5. Watership Down by Richard Adams - I've been meaning to read this one for ages and the Four Legged Friends Challenge has finally given me a good reason to! Though I must admit that at 476 pages, it's much much longer than what I had imagined it to be! I'm sure I'll enjoy it though.

Lesson Of The Day: Control Road Rage!

2007-09-14T14:01:00.000-06:00

I'm known for my road rage. Aside from that, I'm probably one of the most easy going people you'd ever meet. It takes a lot to piss me off, and I mean a lot. I'm all about keeping the peace and making life as harmonious and easy going as possible, but get me behind the wheel and this alter ego comes out and I suddenly think the worst of humanity. It's my tragic flaw.

So I'm getting coffee today and on my way home from the coffee shop, I'm driving at a leisurely 35 mph when the car in front of me slams on their brakes and makes a sudden left turn with no blinker or anything. Of course the first thing that comes out of my mouth after slamming on my brakes is "nice f***ing blinkers asshole!" Then I immediately say to myself "well that wasn't very nice Chris, wonder what karma's going to do to you for that one?" Literally said that out loud!....well don't you that not 30 seconds later, I go to take a sip of my iced coffee and the lid isn't on all the way and a good portion of it goes spilling all down my shirt and shorts. Karma's a bitch. Lesson: I really need to learn to stop screaming obscenities at people I don't know, even if they do drive like morons!