I read this quite a while ago, and finally reviewed it. My final verdict - mixed feelings. Enjoyed it, and yet there were times I was totally frustrated. I thought some things didn't really match up. Like the whole chemical causing weirdness and then this sudden longstanding Daughters of Saturn thing. Click on cover for review link.
Pretty Sacrifices by Devin O'Branagan - a Y/A urban fantasy which deals with the aftermath of a pandemic caused by an evil corporation. Lots of spirituality, of a variety of belief systems. Some fun characters. The author always includes an Australian Shepherd in all her books, which is kind of fun. This is the second of a series. The first book is Glory; The Legend Begins. Glory, being the main character was the only person with the antidote in her blood for the pandemic. After finally getting to the point where her blood is used to cure the population, this second novel deals with the aftermath. Seems the corporation and some demons aren't quite ready to let go of their plans. Glory tries to save her mother, her friends and ultimately the world. Click on cover for full review.
That's it for now. I'm currently reading at least two other novels. Roil, by Trent Jamieson and In Fury Born by David Weber - a bit of a heavy duty SciFi full of descriptions, making it a bit of a slow read. However, there is plenty of adventure in between the almost infodumps of weapons, political situations, military workings, etc.
Since I last posted on this LJ. Thing is, last few times I tried to post anything, I had a hard tome formatting the post, getting the words to line up with pics - the layout was frustrating. I haven't tried the pics vs the words yet - so I still might have a hard time.....
I will practice this now.
let's see...how about words regarding LOL Cats. One of my most favorite things on the internet is the website I Can Haz Cheeseburgers. I'm sure everyone who trolls the interet knows or at least has seen some of these pics. Those funny and cute pictures of cats with captions that seem to capture what we think those cats might be saying...because every body knows that it's perfectly logical to attribute human thoughts and motives to a cat/animal....(snicker)
and the verdict - nope. Cannot have the picture alongside a paragraph. it wants to interrupt the paragraph instead. I can do this on the Blogger site, but not here and this is one of the main reasons I don't post reviews here anymore.
I can't even seem to be able to change the font style, and I like a certain style of font.... georgia in italic - the e's look prettier that way. (frown)
So.....maybe I'll just try to link pics to my review site..... Let's see, will I be able to post links, or put the link UNDER the picture?
Seems to have worked. By the way, Sabaska's Tale is a very fun book, recently released by Untold Press. Written by J.A. Campbell - one of LJ's I read it, loved it and posted a review. Click on the book cover to 'travel' to the review page.
Another recent review ---- how about.....
I recently read this and loved it.grrrr - cannot get the font to change color. Very frustrating. To me, this makes for a bland post...but oh well. Whatever.
Bottom line - I'll try to post at least pics and links to reviews of books I've been reading. I've been completely neglecting this particular blog of mine.... We'll see if I do better from now on.
I have eagerly waited for each of the novels in the Downside series ever since I read the first book, Unholy Ghosts. Everytime I finish reading one of these books, I'm already feining for the next book. Can't get enough. Chasing Magic was no exception. What's weird, is that I am enjoying things in this series that I usually roll my eyes at in other novels - angst, the does he or doesn't he love bit, the odd decisions that Chess makes - and it's all due to the skill of Stacia Kane's characterization. What I get frustrated with in other books just works in this series.In this book - Chess is continuing with her spiral of drug use, trying to keep things hidden and alternately riding the highs and lows of her relationship with Terrible. In keeping with her addicted personality and background, she has some serious insecurities - both as a partner and as a human being. But the one thing she's always been proud of is her work, and even that is threatened because of a past decision, and everyday because of her addiction.
There's a bad drug being passed around in the territory where she lives, people are having some really bad reactions. When Chess and Terrible start to dig a little, they find out that it's further reaching than they first thought. Even people in Lex's side of town are dropping. As things progress, her relationship to Terrible is threatened, Lex threatens Terrible, one of her relationships at the Church changes, and things get very dangerous very fast.
Kane does a wonderful job of producing a book with many layers - the plots and subplots, the relationships between Chess and Terrible, Chess and Lex, Lex and Terrible, etc. Usually I don't want to read too much of the relationship side of things, but because of the way Kane presents things, it all goes hand in hand seamlessly. It's brilliant the way she writes the relationship between Chess's personal life and her professional life, her insecurities and the decisions she makes. You can't help rooting for her, and she's easy to relate to because she make some poor choices and is far from perfect. I also enjoy the way her drug use is weaved in throughout the novel - it's a huge part of her life, and so it makes sense to me to read all the times she grabs a couple pills, bumps a line, craves a bump, worries about her stash - it's all a part of her and her daily life.
Those who enjoy the not so goody two shoes type of heroine will enjoy this - it's refreshing to read a character who is so flawed and yet functions, who goes through life sometimes in a fog sometimes just high, yet is still trying to do the best she can, with what she's capable of. It's a different world in the Downside, and all the characters reflect this, with their speech patterns, their behaviour and their acceptance of each other. Stacia Kane has done a great job at portraying each character, with all their quirks, flaws, good points and bad points.
I am now eagerly waiting for book #6.
Review of Rivers of London - aka Midnight Riot is up at Rabid Reader
Go on over and see what I thought about it
Because I have been having a harder and harder time trying to figure out the formatting etc, on LJ - from now on, when I review a book I'm just going to put up a link to my original review blog
It's just way too stressful trying to figure this out, so I give up on original posting over here.
I reviewed Hunger Games (book #1, YA dystopian) by Suzanne Collins quite a while ago - here is the link to Rabid Reader (which is my book blog- I don't write, I just read - and sometimes rant, haha)
Lilith Saintcrow
Jill Kismet #3
dark urban fantasy
******
cover - I'm going to admit here, that I read Saintcrow's Dante Valentine series, started it when Working For the Devil first came out - so the first two of that series I have with the original (#1) and original cover #2 ; then the third and rest of them came out in a new style - reminiscent of this cover, only the main color was red (and white). I was a fan of the original cover style, but have to admit that the newer covers and this series' cover are both original. Having said that, I do like the covers of this series - the overall blue tone (blue being my favorite color ever) and the general feel of the cover. It also helps (for me) that the first book in Jill Kismet came out in the same cover theme that the last book has, so it's all a good look. but click on the above two links (the originals) and tell me - aren't those some cool covers?
blurb via GoodReads; 'When her police contact asks her to look into a "suicide", she suddenly finds herself in a labyrinth of deception, drugs, murder -- and all-too-human corruption. The cops are her allies, except for the ones who want her dead. The hellbreed are her targets, except for the ones who might know what's going on.'
Well, what can I say here that hasn't been said before? Maybe... combine Lilith Saintcrow's brain, some ink and paper, a kick-ass character, and some crazed hellish villains and you have a book that's an intense reading ride. All of the books that I've so far read by her have been enjoyable reads, and she does not shy away from doing horrible things to her characters. But with each book, I've found a strange combination of almost poetical writing and horror story aspects - it's like your nightmare by a lyricist. Like your worst nightmare written to a beautiful melody. (haha - that's as poetic or lyrical as I'll ever get. just pops out once in a blue moon) In other words, it's hell-a-fun in a kind of heart pounding way. Redemption Alley is right up there - even surpasses some of her other works for sheer action. Jill Kismet starts out the book in a fight and rescue and doesn't get one break until the the book has ended. I might have rolled my eyes at the sheer non-stop action with other writers or characters - really, how much can one person take? But somehow, it's just fun for me to read the complete mayhem that's Jill Kismet's life, trying incessantly to fight off the hellspawn and evil doings in her city while trying not to go over the edge herself. Saintcrow can take a plot and make you feel like you're right in the middle of everything, seeing, hearing and smelling what's going on. She's able to write a story that in other hands would be melodramatic, but in her words and style I enjoyed every minute of the chaos that Jill Kismet is fighting.
**If you haven't read any of the novels, there might be a couple of minor spoilers for the previous two books**
For this chapter in Kismet's life, Saul (her were-kitty, or cougar) is out of town, so even though she's just gotten used to having Saul as backup (and tried to fight the attraction in the previous story) she's feeling the lack of her man. And her hell-strength donor, Perry is being strangely quiet and cooperative, or cooperative quiet, so she's a little creeped out and suspicious of him.
**end of possible minor spoilers**
As the blurb says, there are police officers and others dropping like flies. Sudden deaths and suicides. Monty, her main police contact asks her to check out a former partner's death,an apparent suicide, on the down low. Something doesn't feel right to him. So against her better judgement she agrees, even though it's not a paranormal event - it's a mundane thing. Seems like the moment she agrees to this, things go from bad to worse. Suddenly more people are dying and someone is trying to murder her. Everywhere she goes, it seems she has to deal with an attack that's more than the usual - these are serious attempts on her life, and if it weren't for her extra hell-strength (via Perry) she would have died a few times. As it is, it slows her down a bit, and seriously pisses her off. Might piss me off too, I guess - must suck when people try to kill you over and over. (Glad we don't have to go through that, right?) Since someone seems to know where she's going, she suddenly can't even trust the police, the people who are usually there when she needs them.
An interesting new character is introduced when Jill makes a visit to the barrio, to try to question one of the local gangs. Not a very likeable guy, but someone who just might continue to make an appearance in the series? maybe. There are also some repeat appearances by the weres of the city - I like the way Saintcrow describes them - the way they act when Jill is hurt, and homey they are in general.
Reading a Lilith Saintcrow book is never a happy ever after experience - but even so, there's enough good things that happen (even if it's not obviously, ecstatically good at first) that I'm not depressed after reading a book by her. There've been books that seem to be such downers, that I can feel myself sinking into the depths of despair while reading. (tried to read some Ann Rice books and they were sooo damned bleak...) I think that the combination of the characters' fighting spirits and the overall attitude of people in her books make you feel that even though you know things can explode in a hot minute, there's also people fighting for the greater good - so overall, you feel like there's a thin thread of hope buried in all the chaos that's going on in the Kismet books. (that was a very long sentence - thank goodness this isn't for a grade, lol) So while Saintcrow doesn't necessarily give out HEA endings, she does write satisfying endings to her books. They work.
Next in the series is Flesh Circus.
Lilith Saintcrow also writes under the name Lili St.Crow (Strange Angels, YA series) and Anna Beguine (I haven't read these yet)
**just spent way too long trying to format LJ - from now, I'm just putting a link up to another site for my reviews.
Magic On The Line
UF - released 11/29/11
ppb
******
cover-I have a mixed feelings about the covers in this series. Mostly I love the covers. I love the markings on the model, and her kick-ass yet at times vulnerable look. What I don't like, is that most of the time she is depicted as so skinny, with no muscle tone that it's hard to believe that this is the character who is such a walker - Allie Beckstrom is a rich girl who has rebelled against her background to such a degree that she lives off what she earns on her own - to the point where she's had to walk almost everywhere in Portland, Oregon; from the walking and the recent fighting/training her muscles - especially on her thighs - should be a bit more developed. I'm picturing the legs/body of a dancer. Have you watched dancers legs and bodies? Not ballet dancers, but the dancers such as the ones that you can see on Dancing With the Stars? Those women cannot afford to be stick thin, they have muscles and real bodies. They are sexy with their muscles and toned bodies without being stick skinny and having their bones poke out on their chests....Now this cover isn't quite as skinny as a few others, but her thighs are way to small for a real walker. I would also love to see a more accurate depiction of her magic marks, which are supposed to travel all the way from the side of her face down to her shoulders/chest to her side and her arms. And on the other side, she's supposed to be sporting some thick bands of color - like stripes - on her fingers, her wrists, elbow area and a bit higher up. Don't get me wrong, I think the artist does do a great job (except for the excessive skinnyness) but I would love to see a complete picture of ALL of Allie's magic "tattoos" or markings. I think it would be cool to see, and when I'm reading the series, I'm always trying to picture them in my mind (expecially since Ms Monk describes them or mentions them at least twice in each book.) I admit though, that these covers do a better job than many other urban fantasy books of representing the character and the setting.
Now - the book. Devon Monk is one of those writers that I can say (every time) that I love her work. Love them. There are a lot of writers that are on my autobuy list (it's a list that resides in my head - Hope I don't forget anyone) that is full of what I consider to be quality writers, but even though they're all on my autobuy list, not all are writers that I can say I absolutely LOVE their work. Monk is one of them. There are others, but if I start mentioning them, I'm going to get all OCD and want to make a list, and then I'll want to make a separate list of young adult writers (it would be a short list, haha) and THEN I'd want to alphabetize them, sort them, etc...and it would end up to be a completely different post.
O.K., Now, for reals - now Magic On The Line. Anyway, after the events of the past few books, there is a new head of Authority in Portland and he's making some hard decisions. Zay is having to do things he hates to friends he loves, and Allie isn't too happy. Weird things are happening to the houds and magic users...then on top of everything else, Allie finds herself once again in hiding - from the Authority AND the law this time. Not only that, but suddenly she's having a hard time accessing magic - something that has always been so easy for her, so natural. Things are going to hell in a handbasket, for sure.
I think that this is the next to final book in the series - if not then it's very close to the final book. Things are definitely coming to a head - story arc-wise. A few more hints about Allie's magical history are given...has she really been closed? if so how many times? Is her dad really an evil guy (as evil as Allie believes?), or is he a guy who's simply ready to do what ever he has to, to make a dollar and make magic accessible. There's more to Allie and her father's past than she's been told...can't wait to find out what's going on - or what went on. And as usual Devon Monk has managed to write a novel full of hard decisions, horrific happenings, heartache/break and STILL managed to fit in some snarky dialog, and excellent words between the characters. You would think that this should be easy - but it's not everyone (speaking of authors) who can have their characters speak naturally, the way the real people in everyday lives speak. Many times, the speech patterns don't really match the characters or the times that the book is set in. I've enjoyed the dialog as well as the plots and narration of Devon Monk's novels - and Magic On The Line is no exception to this.
It's hard to write much about a book, especially one this far along in a series without spoilers, so I'm trying to keep this to generalities. In general, we see a lot of return characters - with a focus on Allie (of course, main character and pov) Zayvion Jones, Shamus and Terric. Stone, the Gargoyle appears. Victor, Maeve, Davy and a few others play important roles, but aren't seen much. New characters are introduced - Bartholomew and a Doctor Collins (a very strange man) and a few others are returning characters who have played small parts before.
I think that this is the next to final book in the series - if not then it's very close to the final book. Things are definitely coming to a head - story arc-wise. A few more hints about Allie's magical history are given...has she really been closed? if so how many times? Is her dad really an evil guy (as evil as Allie believes?), or is he a guy who's simply ready to do what ever he has to, to make a dollar and make magic accessible. There's more to Allie and her father's past than she's been told...can't wait to find out what's going on - or what went on. And as usual Devon Monk has managed to write a novel full of hard decisions, horrific happenings, heartache/break and STILL managed to fit in some snarky dialog, and excellent words between the characters. You would think that this should be easy - but it's not everyone (speaking of authors) who can have their characters speak naturally, the way the real people in everyday lives speak. Many times, the speech patterns don't really match the characters or the times that the book is set in. I've enjoyed the dialog as well as the plots and narration of Devon Monk's novels - and Magic On The Line is no exception to this.
It's hard to write much about a book, especially one this far along in a series without spoilers, so I'm trying to keep this to generalities. In general, we see a lot of return characters - with a focus on Allie (of course, main character and pov) Zayvion Jones, Shamus and Terric. Stone, the Gargoyle appears. Victor, Maeve, Davy and a few others play important roles, but aren't seen much. New characters are introduced - Bartholomew and a Doctor Collins (a very strange man) and a few others are returning characters who have played small parts before.
All in all, a very interesting installment with the usual wonderful, magical touch of Devon Monk's way with words put together in a book that I enjoyed very much. If you've been thinking about getting into this series, DO IT, YOU WON'T REGRET IT. If you're waiting to get this book, and are a follower - get it as soon as you can, you'll want to read this one.
Where's My Cow?
Terry Pratchett
illustrated by Melvin Grant
children's books
******
cover- I love this cover. The almost lifelike rendition of the cow and the painting like quality of the background...then that little cartoon image in the two corners...brilliant. And the stamp - approved by the librarian of Unseen University. If you've read the discworld books, you'll get it, but you haven't...see there's this series of books. In some of the books there's this University, the Unseen University. It's quite magical, because it houses not only all the wizards and sorcerers in Ankh-Morpork (or almost all of them) keeping them from harming the innocent - and giving them a place to practice their arts, but it also holds all the magical books. Some of the books have to be chained down, or they'll escape. In charge of the library at Unseen University is an orangutang. He's very capable - he actually used to be a human, but he's pretty happy as an orangutang, in charge of the library. Those prehensile feet and hands, with the thumbs and all, turned out to be very handy - after all....So - he approves this book. ook!
Art work - If I rated artwork (which I don't think should be done, art is subjective, after all) I would rate it a 6 out of 6, or 10 of 10, or whatever. The artwork is beautiful. Whatever the subject was on the page, an animal, a transient, The Duchess, Vimes or young Sam, the art was amazing. Go to Melvin Grant's website and take a look at his gallery. Beautiful work, in a variety of subjects
I approve this book also. LOL, doesn't that sound vain? I do though. I've wanted this book for a long time, since it ties in so nicely with the other discworld novels...it's great because it's really three books in one. You'll have to read it to understand what I'm saying...
I approve this book also. LOL, doesn't that sound vain? I do though. I've wanted this book for a long time, since it ties in so nicely with the other discworld novels...it's great because it's really three books in one. You'll have to read it to understand what I'm saying...
Commander Vimes, a frequent character of the discworld novels is one of the characters in this book. He's reading a book to his son....and the book he's reading...you get to read that while reading about Vimes reading to his son...see? There's another aspect to this, but at the moment I can't really explain it.
So Commander Vimes is reading this book and he is making all these animal sounds, because it's a book called Where's My Cow? So the book within this book has all these animals and animal sounds and someone is obviously looking for his cow....Vimes is reading this, and making the noises for his son - which his son loves - when he suddenly decides the book is a bit lame, in fact that it has nothing to do with real life. After all they live in a huge city, where all the animals are...cooked.
So he begins changing the book while reading, to something HE can relate to. Criminals. He starts naming the usual suspects that he has to deal with on a daily basis...and they all have some quirk, great names, and the pics - oh man, the pics are great. These aren't your normal tame children's book pics - so beware of this if you plan to read it to your kids or grandkids. They will have to have a good sense of the absurd and humor.
I Loved This Book.
I read it to both of my grandkids, and they know it's Granma's SPECIAL BOOK that they have to have ME bring down for them, so we can read it together. And like Vimes, I love making the animal sounds, and I even try to make the rather gross usual Suspects's sounds. like Hrrumph, etc. The kids laugh and laugh. I laugh and laugh. A good time is had by all. Grandma loves these type of childrens books.
Twisted, snarky, edgy, slightly off children's books.
Oh Yeah!
Santa Olivia
The other day, while cruising the shelves at my newest bookstore that I hate to shop at, (yet it's the only one available to me when I'm able to go bookshopping) I saw this book titled Saints Astray. The blurb sounded very interesting....and a bit familiar...I realized that this was a sequel to Santa Olivia. I almost bought it anyway, but then I though I should read the first one first. So I looked around and there it was - not in the teen section, but in the regular SciFi/Fantasy section. I picked it up and bought it. I took it home, finished a couple books I was reading then picked it up....
About 18 hours later, I was finished with it. Pretty much read it all night long. Very hard to put aside, kept wanting to read it until I was finished.
fantasy/dystopian/SciFi/futuristic? actually this book fits in all of these categories...while looking around (a little, not a lot) I didn't see what it was considered...guess I could look on the spine of the book...(I looked, it doesn't have a genre listed) Whatever it is, it's a damned fine book. :)
******
cover- this cover is straight up sexy. I'm not sure why I think so, but I wish I were this young again, with that type of figure (I never appreciated by body's figure 'til it changed), standing there with a sexy long coat blowing in the wind....I don't want the rest of this character's life though. Nope, it's too hard. But the cover....Bellissimo - Anyway, nostalgia and wishful thinking aside, the cover matches a particular scene of the novel...
When I first heard about this Santa Olivia, it first came out in 2009, I was kind of interested in it. Interested in a casual sort of way. For some reason I had the impression that it was a teen book, written with teens in mind; it may have been, it's definitely about young people and their young yet mature lives. I thought about buying it, but I have read one of her other series, and while I enjoyed the other book, I didn't enjoy it enough to continue reading the series. So I kind of forgot about Santa Olivia, knowing that yes, Jacqueline Carey is a pretty good writer, but I wasn't ready to actively search out this new (at the time) novel.
The other day, while cruising the shelves at my newest bookstore that I hate to shop at, (yet it's the only one available to me when I'm able to go bookshopping) I saw this book titled Saints Astray. The blurb sounded very interesting....and a bit familiar...I realized that this was a sequel to Santa Olivia. I almost bought it anyway, but then I though I should read the first one first. So I looked around and there it was - not in the teen section, but in the regular SciFi/Fantasy section. I picked it up and bought it. I took it home, finished a couple books I was reading then picked it up....
About 18 hours later, I was finished with it. Pretty much read it all night long. Very hard to put aside, kept wanting to read it until I was finished.
The characters...they are amazing. The plot was a bit different than your average plot, but interesting. There's this huge epidemic, and in order to stop the spread of disease, the government has erected a wall between countries, and in one particular area the wall has two sides - both enclosing a town - the town of Santa Olivia. The residents at the time were given the option of evacuating....some of them. Some of them, the ones who didn't have anywhere to go, or the money to leave with stayed...and were forgotten by the rest of humanity. Forgotten by everyone except the soldiers on duty guarding the border against this ghostlike revolutionary...
That's the back story and continuing thread of plot. The main plot involves a young girl born to a waitress with an older son (at the time he's five or six) The girl's father has special abilities, and the young girl inherits some of his strengths and lack of fear. As she grows up, she and her brother lose their mother, and she ends up living in the formerly catholic type of orphanage, which is run by a nun who's not really a nun, and a priest who is not really a priest, along with a former student. These characters are a trip. If you're easily offended by characters who are not your perfect religious figures, then these characters are going to bother you. I enjoyed them - they were keeping up the good work that they could, feeding the poor, looking out for orphans and the people, doing the best that they could with what they had, and with the betrayed faith that many of the town were dealing with. If you aren't easily offended, then you'll get an amazing kick out of these religious figures. Their language and behaviour - great.
Loup - the girl (pronounced Lou) has grown up having to hid what she is, even though she really doesn't know what she is. Half of her childhood is with her older brother and her mom, the second half of her childhood is spent with her fellow orphans at the orphanage with the not quite nun, and the priest who isn't really a priest. The residents of Santa Olivia live under the eyes and thumb of the soldiers, as an occupied town that's been forgotten by the rest of the country. Something is off with this, and some people quietly question this existence. Her brother becomes interest in boxing and life goes one until tragedy strikes. Mean while, Loup and her friends come up with harebrained idea to wreak some vengeance on a few of the soldiers that have hurt one of them...and a hero is born. Of course things don't always go as planned.
Santa Olivia has some comic book hero flavor mixed in with revolutionary tales. It's a mix of coming of age, dystopian background, military and SciFi/Fantasy. I enjoyed the blend of writing styles, it ended up to be quite a novel. In a twist, the main character grows up, trying to find a true love with one of the boys that she's grown up with, and her one and only turns out to be a female; so she has that added twist to her coming of age. Loup's love life isn't a smooth road either - neither her nor her girl were planning for a same sex relationship, and they have their issues to work through. I thought it was handled nicely - the build up, the giving in, the surprises, heartache and then the ending....Was is a happy ever after? you'll have to read it to find out, if you haven't already read it. Does Loup and her girl end up together? Do they finally get out of town? does only one make it out or do they both manage? Do they stay together?
This novel had a lot going for it. Believable variety of dialog and speech patterns, love and betrayal, broken hearts, new love, SciFi, occupation by military forces, the growth of not only children, but young adults, iinprisonment, etc. After reading Santa Olivia, I am looking forward to getting a copy of the sequel - Saints Astray.
Jacqueline Carey is known for her Kushiel's Dart series, the high fantasy series that spans not only one character's life, but also her offspring. I know this - even though I've only read the first book of that series. She has also written another series, beginning with Banewreaker titled The Sundering. I haven't read those at this time.
fantasy
******
cover- I always love the covers of Terry Pratchett books - and this one is full of imagery from the novel itself. The covers usually are, and I say this because we all know there are times when a cover has nothing whatsoever to do with the book it's covering. From the imagery to the colors, I like everything about this cover.
I've been a fan of Terry Pratchett for a bit over 20 years, or so - give or take. From the first time I happened across one of his novels, I was hooked. I think the first one I read was Equal Rites - about the young girl who ended up a sorcerer, unheard of on discworld. I think this is one of the few writers who can keep things interesting with over 30 novels in a series about an imaginary planet - a flat one at that, that rests on top of four elephants, who in turn stand on a giant turtle's back as the turtle "swims" through space. Pratchett used to put a bit in about the Discworld and how it looked/came into being in each book, but the last few haven't contained this info. If you haven't read any of his novels yet, take a look at one of the early ones, and pay attention to the description of the discworld, the rim, the way the waters fall off the edge of the planet and how the elephants stand on top of the turtle....it's great. I believe that one of the reasons that I haven't gotten tired of his series is because there are so many characters within. The books are not all about the very same characters. There's a series within the Discworld series about three witches - Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magret for instance- Wyrd Sisters; there's the YA four book series about Tiffany Aching and the Wee Free Men, or Mac Nac Feegles (aka pictsies); There are quite a few books featuring the City Watch, including characters such as Commander Vimes and Captain Carrot and Lord Vetinari such as Night Watch and Guards!Guards!; among my favorites are the novels that feature Death and his granddaughter Susan- Reaper Man and Hogfather are two of them; Yet more novels featuring the Unseen University and a slew of sorcerers, including Rincewind. The Discworld series is an amazing collection of novels with an amazing amount of stories and characters - even better, any of the books reads very well as a standalone novel. Even the four volumes about the child to teen witch can be read in any order, though it's wonderful in order. You can pick any book in the series and have a great reading experience at any time.
Snuff is one of the latest featuring Commander Vimes and his wife, the Duchess. Commander Vimes is a hardboiled type of guy, one who grew up on the streets of a tough neighborhood and worked his way up the ranks of the City Watch. He's rather uncomfortably become a rich noble, because he accidentally fell in love with a duchess, and she with him. Though he has his own set of prejudices against the nobility and rich, he's now uncomfortably one of them, as well as still the commander of a police district. Always the workaholic type of personality, he's been forced to go on vacation - between his wife and the sinister ruler of the city they've convinced him to go on vacation to one of the estates he now owns....only there seems to be more than a simple vacation going on. There's also been some trouble with goblins...
The Discworld, as well as being full of interesting witches, warlocks and policemen is also the home to trolls, goblins, vampires, little blue men, dwarves, werewolves and any other supernatural being you can imagine. And they're all learning to live together in the great city of Ankh-Morpork. Only out in the country it's a bit different. The goblins are the lowest on the totem pole. They are the last species that people are comfortable about treating as second class, or even lower. They're considered dirty, thieves and worse. Only Commander/Duke Vimes is about to learn just how complex their world really is...
Seems a long time ago some goblins were rounded up and driven off. And now when Vimes is on vacation a young goblin woman has been murdered....there's some smuggling going on, a missing person, and someone is trying to frame Vimes as a murderer.
Most of Pratchett's novels have two or three storylines taking place at the same time, and they all come together to blend into a grand scheme of a plot. Pratchett is very good at switching back and forth between pov's, providing a fun suspenseful read complete with humor and social satire. However, for the first section of Snuff, all the action centered on Vimes and the country. During the second half though, part of the plot started to pick up back in the city of Ankh-Morpork with Nobby and Sargeant Colon (two of the oldest characters) bringing things together at the end. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Snuff. I think once I started reading it, it only took me two days to finish, and that was interlaced with work hours, sleep and dinner. I love to read while I eat, but when I have a hardback I won't eat while reading. Don't want to ruin the pages.
If you're a Terry Pratchett/Discworld fan, you're going to enjoy Snuff. If you're in the mood to read something new, and have never read Terry Pratchett you should give this a try. After reading Snuff, you'll want to give the other 30 or so books a try. They're that good. In fact, going through the website, looking for book excerpt links is making me nostalgic to re-read some of these novels; and these are books that I've already read quite a few times, just for fun. :)
By the way-for those Neil Gaiman fans, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman long ago wrote a book together titled Good Omens. I'm sure this is old news for many, but just in case....I loved it, and my copy is so worn, that I've been thinking about buying a new copy, and I rarely buy books I already own (on purpose, anyway)
Vigilante
Military SciFi/alt history
******
Laura E. Reeve
cover-Like the first cover, love it...however, the gun and the hair don't really match the story - small potatoes though when compared to the other factors of the cover.
I LOVED this series. Emotionally scarred, functioning alcoholic, n-space pilot, military reservist with undercover assignments, mixed feelings for her civilian boss, a job on an exploration ship, Destroyer of Worlds, Explorer of Worlds, Ariane as Kedros, full of guilt and ghosts in her head - and that's just one woman. The other characters are just as interesting. Her military commander, her civilian boss, the newly growing Aritifical Intelligance, the spies/enemies turned "allies". This is one hell of an interesting novel full of intrigue, betrayal, twists, aliens, space ship travel and danger. Loved it.
One of the best things about this book is the dialog and the differing pov's in the narration. I guess some would call this the characterizations. Each character had a distinct voice and style. The dialog between all the characters was so believable because it all read so naturally - all the differing characters had their idiosyncracies and manners of speech. I feel like I might be raving a bit, but sometimes in these SciFi books, the dialog can be a bit....over-dramatic or overly formal to denote a different planet or country. These all meshed nicely. Some of the characters even had the added depth of a type of sign language - little flicks and gestures that added to the conversation.
In Vigilante Ariane Kedros is off duty, traveling with her business partner to a generational ship that is in a new system. Things are complicated when the generational ship is attacked and taken over by extremists - extremists who don't care how many people they kill or if they cause a sun to go nova. They have an extremist agenda - and yet the leader is being led by someone else. Many layers are well - layered on this plot. Once again Ariane has to deal with a weapon of mass destruction, only this time it's a stolen one and she has a very slight chance of saving the system. Her former enemies are suddenly uneasy allies, because everyone wants to survive and they're all under attack.
There is one more book to go in this trilogy (which I've read by now)
I think the trilogy is worth reading and I wish Roc/Penguin would ask for more from Reeve. Fortunately, Reeve is working on a prequel to Ariane's story and hopefully it'll be available for purchase...I'm hoping. anyway, you can check out the website and sign up for notification, which I did. sometimes, I'm quite the geek. The website also includes some of her worldbuilding, alternate history, info about the mysterious Minoans (the aliens) and the characters. I'm already missing the novels, now that I've finished reading them. It's fantasy/UF time now, though. I've ran the gamut of all the SciFi I could find that caught my eye. (I am a bit picky about my SciFi Space Travel novels)
The Trilogy includes:
Peacekeeper
Vigilante
Pathfinder
Military SciFi/alt history
******
Laura E. Reeve
cover-Like the first cover, love it...however, the gun and the hair don't really match the story - small potatoes though when compared to the other factors of the cover.
I LOVED this series. Emotionally scarred, functioning alcoholic, n-space pilot, military reservist with undercover assignments, mixed feelings for her civilian boss, a job on an exploration ship, Destroyer of Worlds, Explorer of Worlds, Ariane as Kedros, full of guilt and ghosts in her head - and that's just one woman. The other characters are just as interesting. Her military commander, her civilian boss, the newly growing Aritifical Intelligance, the spies/enemies turned "allies". This is one hell of an interesting novel full of intrigue, betrayal, twists, aliens, space ship travel and danger. Loved it.
One of the best things about this book is the dialog and the differing pov's in the narration. I guess some would call this the characterizations. Each character had a distinct voice and style. The dialog between all the characters was so believable because it all read so naturally - all the differing characters had their idiosyncracies and manners of speech. I feel like I might be raving a bit, but sometimes in these SciFi books, the dialog can be a bit....over-dramatic or overly formal to denote a different planet or country. These all meshed nicely. Some of the characters even had the added depth of a type of sign language - little flicks and gestures that added to the conversation.
In Vigilante Ariane Kedros is off duty, traveling with her business partner to a generational ship that is in a new system. Things are complicated when the generational ship is attacked and taken over by extremists - extremists who don't care how many people they kill or if they cause a sun to go nova. They have an extremist agenda - and yet the leader is being led by someone else. Many layers are well - layered on this plot. Once again Ariane has to deal with a weapon of mass destruction, only this time it's a stolen one and she has a very slight chance of saving the system. Her former enemies are suddenly uneasy allies, because everyone wants to survive and they're all under attack.
There is one more book to go in this trilogy (which I've read by now)
I think the trilogy is worth reading and I wish Roc/Penguin would ask for more from Reeve. Fortunately, Reeve is working on a prequel to Ariane's story and hopefully it'll be available for purchase...I'm hoping. anyway, you can check out the website and sign up for notification, which I did. sometimes, I'm quite the geek. The website also includes some of her worldbuilding, alternate history, info about the mysterious Minoans (the aliens) and the characters. I'm already missing the novels, now that I've finished reading them. It's fantasy/UF time now, though. I've ran the gamut of all the SciFi I could find that caught my eye. (I am a bit picky about my SciFi Space Travel novels)
The Trilogy includes:
Peacekeeper
Vigilante
Pathfinder
By the - why can't I even post of picture? or change the font? what happened to the posting buttons for links, and etc? What the hell Live Journal?
Peacekeeper
Laura E. Reeve
******
cover - On her website, Ms Reeve has notations or quotes up about the "wretched" covers. I kind of like the cover, however the one thing that gets to me is the blond hair - the character has short dark curls, not flowing long blond locks. Also, I don't remember her carrying a large gun anyplace in the book, or even the sequels. But you know - how covers can be. I still like the cover though.
I just love SciFi - especially SciFi with space ships, implants and enhancements, and bigger than life scenarios. This trilogy has it all - even a tortured, flawed yet strong female character. Ariane Kedros just doesn't give up.
Ariane Kedros has a past, one with a different name, different face and slightly older face than she has now. She's in a program to protect her identity because of her history of following some orders that destroyed a solar system. Even though her identity is supposed to be secret, seems someone knows or has guessed who she is.
Ariane works for Aether Explorations - is part of a two person crew. Her other job is as reserve military, and sometimes undercover work for a Colonel Edones. In this novel, she's assigned to be part of an inspections team as two former warring factions are dismembering their weapons of mass destruction - these weapons can destroy whole solar systems...like in her secret past.
Ariane also has a problem - she's an alcoholic who practices extreme self control with the exception of her occasional binges. Being an N-Space pilot necesitates her using certain drugs, so that complicate matters.
So off Ariane goes, to her new assignment and her undercover second assignment - to be bait for someone who is systematically murdering her former crew-mates...and the plot thickens.
I enjoyed this book so much. There is intrigue, suspense, fighting and interesting characters. The dialog is superb - sounding real and never over dramatic or forced. I also enjoyed all the SciFi elements, the ships, the space travel, the weapons. There were sections where info was woven into the story, but it didn't feel heavy handed - it was handled in an interesting way, so that I wasn't left feeling like I wanted to skim over parts, or wanted to nod off. That's probably not easy to do when writing SciFi or any type of novel where you have to basically invent a whole complete history with added beings. In this case, the added beings are the alien Minoans. They are this super law abiding species that has extended a helping hand to humans, helping them to achieve space travel. Only they might have a hidden agenda. Many are afraid of them, because they can destroy quickly and have almost magical technology.
There are two other books in this series - Vigilante, and Pathfinder. At this time, I've finished all three, and enjoyed each one.
Peacekeeper
Laura E. Reeve
******
cover - On her website, Ms Reeve has notations or quotes up about the "wretched" covers. I kind of like the cover, however the one thing that gets to me is the blond hair - the character has short dark curls, not flowing long blond locks. Also, I don't remember her carrying a large gun anyplace in the book, or even the sequels. But you know - how covers can be. I still like the cover though.
I just love SciFi - especially SciFi with space ships, implants and enhancements, and bigger than life scenarios. This trilogy has it all - even a tortured, flawed yet strong female character. Ariane Kedros just doesn't give up.
Ariane Kedros has a past, one with a different name, different face and slightly older face than she has now. She's in a program to protect her identity because of her history of following some orders that destroyed a solar system. Even though her identity is supposed to be secret, seems someone knows or has guessed who she is.
Ariane works for Aether Explorations - is part of a two person crew. Her other job is as reserve military, and sometimes undercover work for a Colonel Edones. In this novel, she's assigned to be part of an inspections team as two former warring factions are dismembering their weapons of mass destruction - these weapons can destroy whole solar systems...like in her secret past.
Ariane also has a problem - she's an alcoholic who practices extreme self control with the exception of her occasional binges. Being an N-Space pilot necesitates her using certain drugs, so that complicate matters.
So off Ariane goes, to her new assignment and her undercover second assignment - to be bait for someone who is systematically murdering her former crew-mates...and the plot thickens.
I enjoyed this book so much. There is intrigue, suspense, fighting and interesting characters. The dialog is superb - sounding real and never over dramatic or forced. I also enjoyed all the SciFi elements, the ships, the space travel, the weapons. There were sections where info was woven into the story, but it didn't feel heavy handed - it was handled in an interesting way, so that I wasn't left feeling like I wanted to skim over parts, or wanted to nod off. That's probably not easy to do when writing SciFi or any type of novel where you have to basically invent a whole complete history with added beings. In this case, the added beings are the alien Minoans. They are this super law abiding species that has extended a helping hand to humans, helping them to achieve space travel. Only they might have a hidden agenda. Many are afraid of them, because they can destroy quickly and have almost magical technology.
There are two other books in this series - Vigilante, and Pathfinder. At this time, I've finished all three, and enjoyed each one.
I have not been very good at posting in a timely, or regular, or even in a semiregular way. And right at the moment, LJ is tripping me out because the cursor is slowly moving further and further to the left as I'm trying to type so it's hard to keep track of what the hell I'm typing. What's up with all the strangeness on the blogs? I had a hell of a time posting on Blogger. Everytime I tried to upload a video, windows would suddenly stop working . I kept having to try, post, save, retry, it was driving me crazy. Finally got it done and now I'm going to attempt to repost it here...It seems that it's been so long since I posted here that the posting ap seems a bit different. not all my words are fitting in this little box, so I hope they will all show up after I click post. At least LJ doesn't change things as often as Facebook.
It's that time again - Monday. For me a more relaxed Monday - coming off a week of long, long days at school, where we had early release for the students. This means everyday we had to keep students occupied and happy for SIX HOURS every single day and still keep them up to date on their homework and reading. And we did this on the hottest week we've had all summer long. triple digit weather. We barely survived and yet I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Great bunch of kids and a great bunch of workers.
Hosted by Sheila of Book Journey we get together to talk about what we've read, reviewed, plan to read and for this one time I'm adding a bit about my wild Saturday Night at a place called Chris's - Really, I'm bragging about my son the drummer and the band he's a part of....
They've added a bass player now, and although I thought they were pretty kickass before, it's just that much better with some bass action. I've always loved percussion. Always. In fact, when I was a little girl way back in the 60's/70's and just starting to pay attention to music (this started in 1965 when I was five and "discovered" the Monkees) I wanted to be a drummer. But little girls weren't usually encouraged to be drummers. Thankfully - my son allows me to mess around on his drumset once in a while. Pretty cool of him (of course, I did give birth to him)
Currently, I'm reading Peacekeeper by Laura E. Reeve. It's one of those books that feel like I should have read at least one before it, and yet it's the first in a series. Interestingly flawed character with some sort of traumatic act in her past that leaves her feeling massively guilty. Not sure if I'm into it, and yet I also feel like if I stick with it, I'll end up enjoying it. I giving it a few more chapters to see if it's for me or not. I hope it is, because for some reason I have the third book in series (and yet not the second. go figure. my book buying is not always rational)
The other book I'm currently reading is Jaine Fenn's Principles of Angels. Sent to me by a favorite British writer - this is an interesting SciFi with fantasy blended in...(sidhe) - by the way, I seem to have two copies of this one - if anyone is interested.
I finished reading Shotgun Sorceress by Lucy A. Sny
der. Reviewed it. Good, though there were things that bothered me about the writing format. Overall, though - good book with a good plot. Most likely I'll buy the third book, if only to find out what in the hell is up with the ending in this second of the series. One of the few times I can say that I actually was irritated with the way a book ends. Usually I'm pretty good at taking a book as the author intends. To just sit back and enjoy.
I was planning on finishing Principles of Angels, and then in my usually B.A.D.D. fashion, I ended up grabbing Working Stiff. Working Stiff is a book that I bought just because is was a new series by Rachel Caine (though I did get tired of reading the Weather Warden series after the 6th or 7th book), I do enjoy Caine's writing. I remember thinking in the first chapter that I this might not be the book for me, then BAM! Things started getting weird and by weird, I mean interesting weird. So I kept on reading it and finished it in like...12 hours. Laid in bed all day reading it. :) Good thing after a Saturday night out (read
below for more on that)
From the anthology Hexed, I read and reviewed a short story by the writing team Ilona Andrews titled Magic Dreams. Wonderful short - from the first person pov of Dali - the half-blind vegetarian white tiger shapeshifter. I think it's great that Ilona Andrews uses a variety of other characters from the same world as Kate Daniels when they write for anthologies.
It's Monday - Books and Good Music - what more is there to life?
It's that time again - Monday. For me a more relaxed Monday - coming off a week of long, long days at school, where we had early release for the students. This means everyday we had to keep students occupied and happy for SIX HOURS every single day and still keep them up to date on their homework and reading. And we did this on the hottest week we've had all summer long. triple digit weather. We barely survived and yet I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Great bunch of kids and a great bunch of workers. This is quite a post. In the Book World I feel like I've accomplished more than normal - reviews and reading. Not as much as a lot of other bloggers, but more than I've done in a long time. But first, I also finally had a Saturday Night Out (which I kind of paid for on Sunday, having had a few drinks that I didn't feel until later-I normally don't even drink)
On Saturday night - (one of my rare weekend-nights without a grandchild) we went to Vallejo to watch a band called Wilken - my son is the drummer, but regardless of being related, I think they are a pretty kickass band. I don't have access to video from Saturday night, but here is a sample of one of their songs. This is when there were only two members to the band - the guitarist/singer and (my baby) the drummer. The singer writes his own music and lyrics for most of their songs. My son has written the lyrics to at least one of the songs - though not the one posted here. Wilken's music is a bit of a blues rock - love it. Reminds me of a cross between early LedZeppelin and White Stripes, just a bit more bluesy.
They've added a bass player now, and although I thought they were pretty kickass before, it's just that much better with some bass action. I've always loved percussion. Always. In fact, when I was a little girl way back in the 60's/70's and just starting to pay attention to music (this started in 1965 when I was five and "discovered" the Monkees) I wanted to be a drummer. But little girls weren't usually encouraged to be drummers. Thankfully - my son allows me to mess around on his drumset once in a while. Pretty cool of him (of course, I did give birth to him)
They have more songs posted up on YouTube and I would love to have one of those sweet large monitor setups with the stereo speakers - so I can pretend to be at the shows....his father and I try to make most of their shows and I always enjoy myself. Even if I'm usually one of the oldest people there. Always appreciate music though.
Wilken played right before a punk rock band - The Connies. The Connies are a very good band (that many punk rockers have probably heard of already) and they've been at a few of the same shows as Wilken. In fact, the lead singers of The Connies came on Saturday night WEARING a shirt from my son's band. How cool is that? They've been around for a while, and they seem to be very supportive of newcomers to the music scene. When they headline, they stick around to listen to the bands that play after them...great guys. To me, that shows a lot of class.
Finally - I have read quite a few books over the summer, yet have rarely reviewed them. This is the main reason I started this blog after all - to say something about books that I'm reading. Not just to list books that I've read. I've been lazy when it comes to reviewing...lazy and a bit shy.
Some of the books I reviewed this week, yet read weeks ago:
My Life As A White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland
Hammered (Jenny Casey #1) by Elizabeth Bear
Right Hand Magic by Nancy A. Collins
Currently, I'm reading Peacekeeper by Laura E. Reeve. It's one of those books that feel like I should have read at least one before it, and yet it's the first in a series. Interestingly flawed character with some sort of traumatic act in her past that leaves her feeling massively guilty. Not sure if I'm into it, and yet I also feel like if I stick with it, I'll end up enjoying it. I giving it a few more chapters to see if it's for me or not. I hope it is, because for some reason I have the third book in series (and yet not the second. go figure. my book buying is not always rational)
The other book I'm currently reading is Jaine Fenn's Principles of Angels. Sent to me by a favorite British writer - this is an interesting SciFi with fantasy blended in...(sidhe) - by the way, I seem to have two copies of this one - if anyone is interested.I finished reading Shotgun Sorceress by Lucy A. Sny
der. Reviewed it. Good, though there were things that bothered me about the writing format. Overall, though - good book with a good plot. Most likely I'll buy the third book, if only to find out what in the hell is up with the ending in this second of the series. One of the few times I can say that I actually was irritated with the way a book ends. Usually I'm pretty good at taking a book as the author intends. To just sit back and enjoy.I was planning on finishing Principles of Angels, and then in my usually B.A.D.D. fashion, I ended up grabbing Working Stiff. Working Stiff is a book that I bought just because is was a new series by Rachel Caine (though I did get tired of reading the Weather Warden series after the 6th or 7th book), I do enjoy Caine's writing. I remember thinking in the first chapter that I this might not be the book for me, then BAM! Things started getting weird and by weird, I mean interesting weird. So I kept on reading it and finished it in like...12 hours. Laid in bed all day reading it. :) Good thing after a Saturday night out (read
below for more on that)From the anthology Hexed, I read and reviewed a short story by the writing team Ilona Andrews titled Magic Dreams. Wonderful short - from the first person pov of Dali - the half-blind vegetarian white tiger shapeshifter. I think it's great that Ilona Andrews uses a variety of other characters from the same world as Kate Daniels when they write for anthologies.
Some good news-As a matter of fact, I was recently hoping that they would write a complete novel with one of their other characters and I just noticed today, that they ARE. A novel featuring Andrea (the hyena) and Raphael is in the works and they've posted a snippet. Great stuff, too. I also love the way all the other characters see Kate. Very interesting. Not exactly the way Kate sees herself, but isn't that always the way? Well, needless to say, I am looking forward to this new novel.;
Monday September 12th:Community
"While the awards are a fun part of BBAW, they can never accurately represent the depth and breadth of diversity in the book blogging community. Today you are encouraged to highlight a couple of bloggers that have made book blogging a unique experience for you. They can be your mentors, a blogger that encouraged you to try a different kind of book, opened your eyes to a new issue, made you laugh when you needed it, or left the first comment you ever got on your blog. Stay positive and give back to the people who make the community work for you!"
While cruisin' 'round the internet, looking for It's Monday, What Are You Reading posts, I kept coming across these BBAW posts. Now I saw some of these bloggers last year using BBAW on quite a few of their posts, and I think I even responded to some of the posts regarding voting for blogs. Always happy to vote for blogs I enjoy, after all. But I really didn't even know what BBAW stood for, or even who 'THEY' were. It's all so mysterious to me. So this year, I actually CLICKED on a link - that's right. I actually hovered my mouse and clicked away to find out something on my own. LOL. I rarely do this, preferring to idly just ask questions. I thought I would make one of my own posts - especially with today's topic. So here goes...
Back when I first started exploring on the internet, I had just bought a computer - a laptop that was on clearance - (meaning it was already "old" for a computer). I paid around $200 for it. But for me it was the bargain of the century. Now remember, I had NO computer experience, no knowledge of even computer slange, terms, practices...NOTHING. I knew nothing. But I was interested in reading, so I concentrated on websites that featured writers or books that I enjoyed. Remember that I knew NOTHING. I had no idea what archives were, what history meant in relation to computers, what a blog was, was confused by many terms...especially the yahoo groups, or threads, etc. So I'm happily stumbling along making all kinds of mistakes and not even knowing I'm making them etc. I even went as far as trying to start an LJ page. I started the LiveJournal page because I wanted to post a comment on a LKH_lashouts site and you had to be a member and to be a member you needed an LJ presence. A short time later I started this blog - I can't remember why - probably to be able to post comments on other people's blogs. Remember I knew nothing - not even enough to ask questions, or even to know that I might have questions.
One of my first posts was on my live journal - and it happened to be a bit of a rant about banned books. I hate the thought of banning books. I personally think that there should be no banning of any books (except for pro-nazi type shit, but then that's still freedom of speech, even though those people are ignorant asshats) I was very surprised a short while later to actually have a comment on my post. Someone had actually READ IT, not only READ IT, but took the time to leave a comment. I was very surprised because I have this shyness syndrome, I think if I had ever been taken to the doctor when I was a kid, in these times I might have been diagnosed with Social Anxiety Syndrome, I used to get so nervous with strangers or even people I didn't know very well, that my hearing would shut down, I couldn't look anyone even in the FACE, there would be a roaring in my ears, my tongue would seem to swell up in my mouth and I couldn't for the life of me say a thing. Even in a restaurant, the thought of getting up and walking to the bathroom would devastate me. I just knew that someone would watch me and then I would fall. Of course, whenever I did have to walk across any room in public or even a party my feet didn't seem to work right and I would stumble. Get the idea? Very shy, so shy I couldn't function. Time has helped, as well as having children. I still have some issues that pop up here and there, though.
Anway - the thought of someone commenting on my post gave me a mixture of pride, surprise and absolutely freezing TERROR. That person who both made me feel validated and yet scared the shit out of me was phoenixfirewolf. Now this was way back...must have been in 2007 or before. I know it was quite a while ago, but strangely I can't find my original post. I know LJ has been having some problems with hacking and I think some posts might have been lost. But I remember when phoenix answered me, and I remember I posted infrequently, yet everytime I did post, she would leave a comment. Made me feel very welcome and it was so good to have a friendly voice. Around this time I was also having a bit of hard time on an author's yahoo group. The people there were extremely judgemental and would react so strongly and rudely to those who made comments or points that they didn't agree with. They were so unpleasant - I once made the mistake of making a joke to the author about something and though I thought is was a simple joke (nothing rude or crude or even insulting-nothing to be upset about) these people came unglued and were so rude that I almost stopped making any comments anywhere. I think the only reason I continued was because phoenix was so great as an online friend. Really, if it weren't for the fact that I felt like I could write anything to her without being attacked - unlike this other group - I really would have just gave up on the whole online experience. Anyway, when I first started commenting back and forth with Phoenix, I saw a few of her posts that mentioned writerly things, and was able to read some of her writerly things. I was impressed - here was this young lady, friendly with this talent for words who continued to talk to me. I was impressed with her writing, and as the months passed I was also impressed with her continued presence - not just the presence, but she was supportive and never made me feel like an idiot when I asked about some of the seemingly simplest internet things - things the other group were so rude about me not knowing (one of the things was the knowledge that there were archives to search for - apparently I should have known that this joke I made had been talked about before, and should have known to search for this info, and then never bring it up - weird. Even though at first I was mortified, I now think these people might have had a screw loose, and I think the author herself should have put a stop to the behaviour of her guests on her forum. Turns out, that the thing I had joked about came out in the open as being true now, and it wasn't even a horrible thing, or anything to be embarrassed about. A pseudonym. To this day, though I might read one of her books -she is a good writer, I won't even mention her novels or name online. the whole experience left a bitter taste for me) I don't like even including this group in the same anecdote as Phoenix - but it underscores the behaviour of one, with the better behaviour of the other. If it weren't for "meeting" people like Phoenix online, I would never have had the courage to continue to even THINK about making comments on blogs. I never would have started this blog, and I never would have even approached one of the other people who have made my blogging experience fun. And I'm happy that Phoenix is now enjoying some success as a writer. Early on I thought she was a great writer, and if I thought she was good then, she can only get better and better with experience. Even in 2007, the snippets that I was able to read from her read much better than many of the published novels that I've read over the years. So watching her work and grow as a writer is made even sweeter knowing that she's such a great person who helped one very shy, insecure middle aged (haha, I was around 46/47 then, so young compared to now) woman feel better on the internet. You can read some of her online fiction here, and keep an eye out for her e-books. Arabian Dreams - fantasy - will be her second full length novel to be published. Don't have a publishing date yet, but keep and eye out for J.A. Campbell, a truly wonderful human being with a great writing ability. Besides writing, she is branching out, with a group of other writers she has started a website titled Fabulously Young ePubs - a website that contains fun things for e-book lovers and fiction. I'm so happy for her and she truly deserves success at this, she's been working very hard at writing along with keeping a horse, raising a puppy and being the slave to a few cats.
This brings me to the second person that has made my experience on the internet better than it could have been. After my experience with the never-to-be-named-by-me-personnally author, combined with my still frequent bouts of insecurity and extreme shyness (sometimes I really have doubts about even posting my reviews, or even putting my own thoughts out there for others to read and possibly ATTACK!, lol - but I try to laugh and do it anyway) I think twice about approaching other writers, especially already established writers. But a few years ago, I was intermittently reading Karen Mahoney's blog (another sweet person and good writer) and saw a comment by a UK commenter. I forget why I originally followed her link - an impulse, possibly her comment impressed with her wit. But I clicked on her name link and came across her blog - where I read some of her entries, and then noticed that she had a book out and was releasing her second book, or had just released. I noticed that this was an author who put excerpts up of her work (LOVE when an author does this - nothing better than to be able to get a taste of their work before you buy) and read the excerpt to her first novel (The Sweet Scent of Blood). and thought....WOW. This is great, I have to get it. So I looked all over for a copy...no copies over here. After a while, I took a chance and wrote her an e-mail asking about her books, were they in stores yet, etc. She actually wrote me back. Now this may seem an obvious thing to do, but really - not every author that you write to writes back. Now I understand that many are very busy, or maybe they're shy like me, etc. But not only did she take the time to READ my mail, she took the time to respond. Turned out her books were not available yet in the U.S., but down the line they would be. I couldn't wait. I tried to have patience, but after reading the excerpt to the second book, I just couldn't wait and ordered them online from The Book Depository. A move that I never regretted. Over the years, I took a couple more chances, writing to her and she always wrote back. One day, or night, I was feeling especially garrulous and wrote what I call an EPIC e-mail. Kind of like this blog post, it's become rather epic. She not only took the time to read this, but responded. Not only did she write back, but she took the time to start commenting on my blogs, not just e-mails. So this particular writer, restored my faith in established writers. She's one of those already published authors that takes the time to respond, makes you feel like welcome to write to her, answers questions and is a wonderful human as well as being an amazing writer. She is now working on her fourth novel, getting it very close to publication and the fifth in the Spellcrackers.com series. She is a British writer, so her books don't come out here on the same schedule - for instance her third book (The Bitter Seed of Magic) has already come out in the UK, while her second novel (The Cold Kiss of Death) came out in April here in the States. But thanks to The Book Depository, I don't have to wait until they are released here, I can order them as soon as they are published in the UK - another great thing about the internet. Suzanne McLeod - writer of fantastic urban fantasy and all around good person. Glad to have met you online.
There are a few others who have helped to make my online blogging experience a good one, of course. Not only have they restored and maintained my faith in online people, authors and bloggers - these are the two that really stand out, the two that I feel comfortable writing epic e-mails to, leaving silly comments or just knowing that even if I don't write to them regularly, I know they're going to be there - supporting me when I'm feeling blue or insecure, and enjoying my happiness when I'm feeling good about things. When I was a young girl growing up, so afraid to even look at another person's face when first meeting someone, too nervous to walk across a restaurant in front of the other customers, still nervous to comment at times I never thought that there would be a time that I would be a penpal of sorts to people across the world from me. But Suzanne McLeod and Julie Campbell are two women that I feel confident enough to send books to, to let some of my weirdness shine through and know that they're just going to laugh along with me and they're also the type to understand why I might feel more comfortable with my dog and another person. LOL. They've introduced me to new-t0-me writers, sent me books and friendship. These are the two women who have enhanced my internet blogging experience and I hope we never lose touch. There's not many people I feel like this about - LOL. It's also rare that I gush on about people, so enjoy this while you can.
It's Monday Meme is hosted by Sheila of Book Journey - and I believe this is her 100th It's Monday post.wow - 100 weeks. 100 Mondays. Amazing.
I haven't finished one books this past week - not one. Nope
Not one book...
Wait! I did finish a book. LOL A children's book.
Frankie Stein Starts School by Lola M Schaefer
I bought this for my granddaughter on a recent bookstore trip. I was picking her up for her weekend, and decided I didn't want to cook dinner, she hadn't ate yet, I hadn't ate yet...So we treated ourselves to McDonald's Happy Meals (I know, this isn't very healthy, but we rarely do this) - bought myself a happy meal, also - for the toy, of course. The hamburger is also just the right size to make me feel content (not overfull) and I love to get the toys. So we made a side trip to Borders and browsed the children's section. I really have to keep her focused on teh books, she wants to look at the toys (WHY do they sell toys in a bookstore? the toys are overpriced, and I want to buy BOOKS at a bookstore) After a few reminders about being there for books, not toys, she helped to pick a book for her cousin (my grandson) and picked Frankie Stein Starts School for herself. After we got home, I read her the book at least three times. That weekend she had her Uncle Willy, his girlfriend, our visiting friend "Uncle"Donny, another friend, and ANOTHER person who just happened to stop by all read her this book. She manages to get many people to read to her, and for some reason, they'll all take a few minutes to read her a book, even if they're just there to pick someone up. It's amazing and kind of cool that all these different aged people will take time out to read a little girl a story.
However,
I am in the middle of reading many, many books - most recently I've started reading the following novels;
Magic Lost, Trouble Found - Lisa Shearin
Young Miles - A Warriors Apprentice - Louise McMaster Bujold
The Truth of Valor - Tanya Huff
I am almost finished with Magic Lost, Trouble Found by Lisa Shearin. I'm enjoying this novel - there are pirates, elves, goblins (not your average storybook goblins) and mages. There is danger and laughs, mystery and mayhem. I'm glad that I have the second in the series (Armed and Magical)
already here to read.
I've been a bit obsessed with SciFi space-travel novels
recently and knowing this a friend of mine sent me a few books by Lois McMaster Bujold. Now I knew Bujold wrote fantasy -I read Paladin of Souls a long time ago- but I didn't know she wrote space ship/SciFi novels. There is a whole series of these novels - it's cool because some of the worlds seem like earth circa 1900, or 1800 villages...with SPACE SHIPS and other tech that goes with space ship knowledge. BTW = One of the thinks I like about SciFi that's written pre-cell phone era is the communication devices that the SciFi characters use. It's great the things these SciFi writers come up with before the variations are actually invented. Sometimes I think the inventors read 
SciFi and get their ideas from there....One of the books is an omnibus (I love that word, but really - OMNIBUS) edition containing some of the novels that centrate on Miles - thus the name Young Miles. At the moment I am just past the midpoint of The Warrior's Apprentice. Miles is an interesting character. He's not tall and handsome or full of magnetic charm. He was born with a birth defect, brittle bones and is extremely insecure - yet becomes a sort of accidental hero. Great stuff.
( WHY!!!??? Why is this happening? Borders is breaking my heartCollapse )While I was at Borders, I found the last two ppb Elizabeth Moon SciFi novels, which just happened to be the next two in the series that I've been reading and needed to get.
So that worked out well for me - I bought Command Decision and Victory Conditions. I read the first three in the Vatta's Wa
r series. I think that there is improvement from the first to the third novel. The first was good, but not amazing - however, there was something about it that made me want to keep reading. The second was better, and by the time I read the third book, I really wanted to see what's going to happen next. I think the characters were more interesting and the overall tone to the novels made it a better read. I'm looking forward to reading these next two novels and finding out what's going to happen with Kylara and her "crazy" old aunt, along with the rest of the surviving members of the Vatta family (the whole family was attacked, most of them killed) in an intricate plot.
This is one of those books that I read about on a blog, thought it sounded interested and wanted to buy - yet forgot about it within weeks. If I don't see it on the bookshelves at the store (unless it's by an author that I follow) then I frequently just forget about the novels. Later, if I happen to come across this, then I'm all happy and excited....So after being out since January of this year, 8 months, I can say that I never saw it on the shelves at Borders.* Well, I should be happy I finally got a copy - which I am. In fact, there were quite a few books by Cherie Priest on the shelf, but this is the first of a series, my first read by Cherie Priest, and since I had a limited amount of money to work with here, I picked Bloodshot. Someday, I would like to give the other novels a try, especially the steampunk.
*( A Bit more of my Border's Heartbreak :(Collapse )
cross posted at my other blog
recently and knowing this a friend of mine sent me a few books by Lois McMaster Bujold. Now I knew Bujold wrote fantasy -I read Paladin of Souls a long time ago- but I didn't know she wrote space ship/SciFi novels. There is a whole series of these novels - it's cool because some of the worlds seem like earth circa 1900, or 1800 villages...with SPACE SHIPS and other tech that goes with space ship knowledge. BTW = One of the thinks I like about SciFi that's written pre-cell phone era is the communication devices that the SciFi characters use. It's great the things these SciFi writers come up with before the variations are actually invented. Sometimes I think the inventors read SciFi and get their ideas from there....One of the books is an omnibus (I love that word, but really - OMNIBUS) edition containing some of the novels that centrate on Miles - thus the name Young Miles. At the moment I am just past the midpoint of The Warrior's Apprentice. Miles is an interesting character. He's not tall and handsome or full of magnetic charm. He was born with a birth defect, brittle bones and is extremely insecure - yet becomes a sort of accidental hero. Great stuff. ( WHY!!!??? Why is this happening? Borders is breaking my heartCollapse )While I was at Borders, I found the last two ppb Elizabeth Moon SciFi novels, which just happened to be the next two in the series that I've been reading and needed to get.
So that worked out well for me - I bought Command Decision and Victory Conditions. I read the first three in the Vatta's War series. I think that there is improvement from the first to the third novel. The first was good, but not amazing - however, there was something about it that made me want to keep reading. The second was better, and by the time I read the third book, I really wanted to see what's going to happen next. I think the characters were more interesting and the overall tone to the novels made it a better read. I'm looking forward to reading these next two novels and finding out what's going to happen with Kylara and her "crazy" old aunt, along with the rest of the surviving members of the Vatta family (the whole family was attacked, most of them killed) in an intricate plot. This is one of those books that I read about on a blog, thought it sounded interested and wanted to buy - yet forgot about it within weeks. If I don't see it on the bookshelves at the store (unless it's by an author that I follow) then I frequently just forget about the novels. Later, if I happen to come across this, then I'm all happy and excited....So after being out since January of this year, 8 months, I can say that I never saw it on the shelves at Borders.* Well, I should be happy I finally got a copy - which I am. In fact, there were quite a few books by Cherie Priest on the shelf, but this is the first of a series, my first read by Cherie Priest, and since I had a limited amount of money to work with here, I picked Bloodshot. Someday, I would like to give the other novels a try, especially the steampunk. *( A Bit more of my Border's Heartbreak :(Collapse )
cross posted at my other blog
******
Military SciFi
Cover -
This cover is pretty good for representing a little of what's going on in this novel. There is Torin, now a Gunny....oh, damn, what's that term? Gunnery Sargeant, aka Gunny has agreed to accompany a recovering major so he can see how well his new body is working - (totally scifi - love it) There's the snow, the attacking drones, the building.....
Excerpt Note - I finally found access to a print form of an excerpt, although I had a hard time figuring out how to use it. click on the cover, it'll take you to Books On Board - once there you can click on the cover and get a peek at the contents. With the previous books, I only noticed audio links for excerpts. If you click on the book title here, it'll take you to Kentucky Libaries Unbound
where you can access an audio excerpt.
I love these books - by the time I was through with the first in the series, I knew I wanted to read all of them. By the time I was finished with book no 2, I was totally addicted to these. I've now finished all the books I currently have in the A Confederation novels (in my head, I call them the Valor novels) and I miss reading about Torin, her marine compatriots, and Craig - the man she met, the civilian that she's reluctantly attracted to. Well, not totally reluctant, but I get the feeling that this character was a little surprised to end up attracted to him.
In The Heart of Valor Torin Kerr has been promoted to Gunnery Sargeant. The novel starts out with her on station going through numerous meetings and question and answer sessions - something she's frustrated with, being a marine more suited to being on call rather than dealing with paperwork. She suddenly get's the chance to escape all this for 20 days (give or take) by being an aide (or attendant) to a Major Svensson who is going through a training session on a training planet - remember it's the future marines
See - there's this planet named Crucible....It's a planet where recruits go to hone their training. There are different weather systems and land types - swamp/tropical, winter with snow and below zero temperatures, etc. There are also different scenarios of war games, meant to be dangerous enough to really train a marine, but not so dangerous that a marine gets killed unless said marine is really stupid. Major Svensson is a Marine who has survived devastating injuries, being put in a regrowth tank and regrowing essentially his body. His injuries were the most severe ever seen, and his recovery the most dramatic, so the plan is to see if he can function in war - if his nerves work, muscle groups, etc. A doctor is going also - a civilian doctor.
Things begin to go horribly wrong - and not only is Gunny Sargeant Torin having to deal with protecting the Major, but the recruits are also suddenly under her care also (they were supposed to be the reponsibility of the training staff sargeants) due to the sudden health crisis of the staff sargeant normally in charge. The training scenarios have gone haywire, attacking the recruits outside the parameters that had been set. Now the recruits and Torin have to deal with an incapacitated leader and a Major that seems to be just a bit off - disappearing for long periods, spacing out....Things begin to seem just a bit too familiar to Torin - too much like her time on the alien spaceship she just escaped from, as well as the assignment she was previously on.
(There might be spoilers in the following paragraph for the previous book)
(End of Spoilery)
A secondary plot involves the training staff sargeant who is from the Di'Taykan (hope I spelled that right- book is not in front of me). Staff Sargeant Beyn was Torin's staff sargeant when she went through Crucible training years before. Like all the other di'Taykans, SST Beyn wears a masker to mask his pheromones - this is necessary so recruits and officers don't suddenly jump each other's bones at inopportune moments. Torin notices that she doesn't even get a wisp of his pheremones, which is very odd - since even with the maskers, there's always a bit of a pull. This is related to why he becomes incapacitated later - leaving the recruits under Torin's responsibility. Actually, she now outranks him, but of course she was supposed to be concentrating on Major Svensson, and now she must find a balance between following the major's orders, "handling" the major and leading the recruits with the other two sargeants. Oh yes, AND make sure that the civilian doctor remains safe. SNAFU - isn't that a term originating from the militaries? It applies here - they all find themselves in a "SNAFU".
The Heart of Valor is the third in the Confederation series by Tanya Huff; continuing the adventures of now Gunnery Sargeant T Kerr. Kerr is a marine who would rather not advance too far up the officer food chain and would rather be with her own platoon. But Gunny Kerr is a soldier who is good at following orders and is good at what she does. She's smarter than some of the brass and yet smart enough not to rub it in their faces unless she has to. I loe her character. And the new character of Craig Ryder (introduced in The Better Part of Valor) is very interesting. A civilian salvage operator who has gotten to Torin, despite herself. He has some serious issues - doens't like to share his space on his salvage ship, yet he needs Torin. I enjoyed a few of the returning characters - such as the reporter Presit of the Katrien species. The Katriens are a species that other find difficult to take serious because they are cute, with soft silky fur, little, and people want to pet them. This can be a mistake. The recruits were great. There's the one that is gung-ho and so bright-eyed and eager - with a crush on Torin. She's the type that packs everything on the suggested list. The others rib her about it, but it seems the extra items do come in handy. There's the computer genious - a whiz at programming and hacking.
The narration and banterish dialogue is just as good in this third novel as I've come to expect from reading this series and a couple of Huff's other series. I stand on my soapbox here:
( my viewsCollapse )Of course, the minute I finished reading The Heart of Valor, I dived right into the fourth novel - Valor's Trial - and sadly, the last Valor novel that I currently own. I used to reread novels pretty frequently - back when I was way more poor than I am now (lol). Now, even though I have vague plans to save and reread many of the novels I've been reading, there aren't that many that I'm itching to reread SOON. But along with Suzanne McLeod, Devon Monk, Ilona Andrews, and a couple more - I am seriously tempted to just start at the beginning again with these novels. I enjoyed them that much. The right combination of danger, banter, narration and relationships - Tanya Huff has totally hit the mark for me. I'm so tempted to take some grocery money and go buy the hardback of Truth of Valor, the latest Confederation novel. LOL if I just hold on, have some patience, The Truth of Valor does come out in paperback September 6 of this year. I'm so tempted though - it's hard to wait.
Other series by Tanya Huff include Fantasy (The Summoning series), what I think is referred to as high fantasy (What Ho' Magic, etc), urban fantasy (Blood Price, Smoke and Mirrors) and more.
The Better Part of Valor
*****
Military SciFi
Tanya Huff
cover - okay, here is a little taste of what a couple of the species look like in the Valor novels. It's always nice to have an idea, because it's not always easy to picture what's described without a little artistic help (have I ever mentioned how much I appreciate artists - including painters, drawers, some sculptors - haha, singers, song writers and of course BOOK WRITERS?) what you see pictured on this cover is the inside of the alledgedly abandoned ship that Torin and her co. end up going to investigate.
Even though I read this about a month ago, taking a very long time to review, I enjoyed the hell out of this book. In fact, I went into a serious reading frenzy. Taking a chance, I had bought the first four novels in this series (two of them in the omnibus edition, giving me a two for the price of one deal). I'm usually not really into military type of anything - I appreciate armies that do their best to protect, hopefully as humanely as possible - but it's just not really my usual reading interests. However, I've found myself almost obsessed with this particular series. It must have something to do with the strong female figure, in charge even as she's subordinate to her superior officers combined with Tanya Huff's unique sense of humor, writing style and the way she writes her dialogue. In about three weeks I had read all the Valor novels, and it only took me that long because I had a few other obligations and grandchildren. As of now, there's only one more book in the series and it's in (sob - sob) H/B. I cannot afford hardback, but it is calling my name. What I need is a damn good coupon...
Something fishy is going on. I enjoyed the dialogue between the characters very much. The twists and turns they went through along with the story of what was going on in the ship that they came on, the discovery of the enemies on the other side of the huge abandoned ship. It all added up to one hell of a novel. I've gone into more of the meat of the story than I usually do. I found it a very engaging and entertaining novel. As usual, I found all the characters fascinating - the irritating characters as well as the characters that were doing their best to get through their situation. There was a great variety of personalities. Loved it.
As soon as I finished The Better Part of Valor, I was grabbing The Heart Of Valor, #3 off my shelf. I am really looking forward to reading the fifth in the series and hope that Tany Huff has plans for more.
When I was a naiive young girl of 12 years...and even when I was a more worldly 16 years of age, I had maintained that when I started aging that I was going to glory in my gray or white hair. I was possibly going to dye it the pale blue or pink that some of the older ladies I used to see in 1969, 1972 - sometime in that era - walking around downtown. They always seemed to have a cloude of pale pink or blueish toned hair. I thought it was pretty, and I decided that if my hair ever got completely white that I would maybe do this, but I was going to love my white hair.
HAHAHAHA.
I started getting WHITE hairs in my early thirties, and not being quite ready to glory in my old age yet, I started a round of dying my hair.
I used to be a brunette with some very interesting red and gold highlights throughout the mass of hair. In the sun, there were times when large areas of my hair looked reddish. So I started going for the burgundy hair dyes, Chocolate Cherry, etc.
I noticed, then, that my hair seemed to grow kind of fast...I had to touch up my roots more and more often. In fact, by 2005 it seemed that I was getting this skunk effect every two weeks. I'm sure everyone has seen this. Beautiful shades of color with at least an inch of white hair running along the part....By 2009 I was gettin tired of asking for help in dyeing my hair - work injuries made it hard for me to do my own hair. I've had each of my sons help me dye my hair, my daughter helped quite a few times, and my daughter in law helped quite often....but it gets very old asking
for help, especially when I needed to do my roots so damned often. So I decided to stop dyeing my hair and started letting it grow out. My hair was down to between my shoulder blades, and let me tell you, it is awkward having four inches of graying and whitening hair on top of various shades fading hair dyes.
for help, especially when I needed to do my roots so damned often. So I decided to stop dyeing my hair and started letting it grow out. My hair was down to between my shoulder blades, and let me tell you, it is awkward having four inches of graying and whitening hair on top of various shades fading hair dyes.In 2009, being too cheap to pay for a hair cut, I asked my then 15 year old niece to cut my hair, and she was happy to help. So I had this rather short hair cut (for me)...and looking back now, I think - oh how young I looked - that was only two years ago..... Anyway, whining about aging aside, this is the first picture of me with all the old dyed hair cut off.
My hair grew out some more, and then last summer my niece gave me another haircut, this time shorter in the back, longer at the sides...but in the two years since my first hair cut quite a bit more whi
te hair has appeared. Which does not make me happy....I never thought when I was younger that I would have so damned MUCH white hair at the age of 50 - which is my age in this picture at family event.
te hair has appeared. Which does not make me happy....I never thought when I was younger that I would have so damned MUCH white hair at the age of 50 - which is my age in this picture at family event. Anyway, following my usual practice of going long periods without hair cuts, (once I went four years without a trim) I noticed that it's been about a year since my last cut. How's that for math skills? Let's see, 2011 minus 2010...yup. One year. My hair has grown at least 7 inches.....Seems impossible. I believe I read somewhere that hair grows a max of four inches a year? My hair is seven inches past my chin, which is where my last cut ended. Chin level. And, because of a quirk in my hair and the last style used, it's shorter in the back. My hair in the back is, as usual, tight little curls as opposed to the straightish hair in front, it looks even shorter in the back. I am So lucky to have different hair textures throughout my head. straight hair on top and in front, little tight kinky curls in the back and the bottom half of my head. My hair has never been able to make up it's mind what it wants to be - straight or curly. Kinky or smooth. I get both. Makes giving me hair cuts challenging. I always used to have to warn professionals that what my hair always ended up curly and shorter in the back, no matter what the front did.
I've become extremely bored with my white sections of hair.
When you're used to seeing dark hair out of the corner of your eyes your whole life, it's hard to get used to seeing white wisps floating around your face. And of course, my hair in the back isn't even white, no it's more of a blackish brown to gray mixture.
When you're used to seeing dark hair out of the corner of your eyes your whole life, it's hard to get used to seeing white wisps floating around your face. And of course, my hair in the back isn't even white, no it's more of a blackish brown to gray mixture.
I am not aging gracefully.
I am aging crankily and pissedly.
I want darker hair again.
I want my eyes to be more like they used to be
I don't want my lower lids to have their own baggage.
I want firm body fat instead of jiggly fat.
SIGH....To make myself feel better, I like to watch the firm young girls on t.v. and picture them aging, sagging, with graying hair.
MWHahahahahaha. Snicker, Snicker.
So my daughter in law dyed my hair blue.
However, I now remember that gray and white hair is a bit harder to dye. We left the dye in for one hour and twenty minutes. We probably could have left it in for two hours. There is still some white little hairs stubbornly mocking me.
But with the sections of white hair that did take the dye, and the darker bits that are now dark blue it looks like I have medium blue hair with light blue highlights.
and strangely, my eyes look grayish in this picture.
So now you see me in all my glory - my scar covering tattoo, my two nose rings, my sad little crooked mouth and my highlighty blue hair.
I am now ready to go see the Smurf movie.
I read the most amazing book the other day. I usually read urban fantasy or horror, but once in a while I like to read somthing else to kind of cleanse the "reading palate". Now at first, to be honest, the writing style was little frustrating for me at first. In fact, normally I would have put any other book down that frustrates me while reading and I'll tell you why. One, I might be a lazy reader. I'm fairly intelligent, and when I was 11 and 12 I was reading at a college level, and reading books like Hawaii (James Michener). But as I've gotten older, and developed some health issues that make me feel like NOT using my time up in frustrating endeavors (if I can at all avoid it) I usually go for the books that keep my interest AND flow easily from book to eye to brain. Lazy. Okay, Yes I am a lazy reader.
BUT - for a few reasons, I kept reading. First of all because I did promise to read it. And Secondly, though not less importantly, I wanted to see what was going to happen to the characters in the book. The main character (first person narrative) was born five years after me, so of course that stuck with me. Then it seems that the mother is severely depressed. Now I've grown up with a (at times extremely) depressed father.
(odd memory follows - read at your own risk)By no means did I have quite the experience that this young girl had, but it's not easy having a depressed parent, never knowing if one day you're going to find him/her dead or what ever. In fact, this book brought home a memory of my father picking up my sister and me for one of our vacation visits. We were driving over a bridge, I was dozing off in the back seat and my sister was riding shot gun....suddenly I hear my father yelling "goddamnit" over and over, sobbing and hitting his head against the side of the car. My sister was crying in the front seat, and so far - incredibly - my father was still in the lane he was supposed to be in - but we were in the middle of a f=**ing BRIDGE! High over the water, traveling at fifty miles an hour. I remember feeling a rush of anger and I yelled as loud as I could (I might have even smacked my dad upside the back of his head, probably not a good move) " Damnit Dad - KNOCK IT OFF AND DRIVE!" He suddenly snapped out of it and apologised to us, and the rest of the trip went fine. Weirdly, my sister and I never talked about this afterward. We just...let it go, sort of. Never again did I doze off while my father was driving though, LOL. He had a hard childhood (crazy mother who beat the shit out of him regularly, and starved the kids) and was on his second marriage. Life was never easy for him. Thankfully now, he's with a great woman who keeps him grounded. In fact, he got with her after having a bypass surgery and valve replacement. Something about coming through that must have given him a renewed sense of being glad to be alive. What a difference from hearing over and over again as I grew up how he wasn't sure if his life was worthwhile. Now to give a bit of understanding here - not only was he beaten many times during his childhood, but he almost died quite a few times before he was eighteen. Then he's had a back broken by a patient in a mental ward (where he worked) and also was in a very severe car accident which left him with many many broken bones. So he's lived with quite a bit of pain for almost his whole life. Now that I'm also dealing with chronic pain, I can totally appreciate how hard it must have been for him to keep going - and he didn't even have his own kids with him (divorced and separated since I was a baby) except for summers and holidays. I have my grandchildren with me every weekend and they help to keep me happy with life. So the man has done the best he could with his situation. Even so, it's not easy being the child of a depressed father and angry mother. Ever since I can remember, I've been a listener for him - at a young age listening to thoughts on world destruction, women who disappointed him (they hurt him, and he was already an insecure man, living with a mom who raged at him daily) the dangers of government getting too much power, earthquakes, disasters, doom and gloom, etc. He wasn't a very happy man and had a lot to worry about. I'm just so happy that now he seems to be at last getting joy out of his life, even though he still suffers from pretty intense pain on a daily basis...On my mother's side, I became for a while difficult for her and many times had to hear her tell me she was going to send me to jail for kids. I believed her, but it didn't make me behave. Now that I've seen and heard some of what our government has been up to (phone taps, the loss of some of our rights, etc....I realize he was right about a lot of what he was talking about. We don't want to admit it, but things aren't like they used to be)
But I meant to review a book here. This is why I kept reading Ghellow Road. On some level, I felt like I had somethings in common with the kids in the story, and so I kept reading, rooting for the characters, and by the time I was further into the book, I wasn't thinking so much about the things that frustrated me with writing style - and to be clear, I feel the same way about many books that other people love, so this might be just one of my weird pet peeves.
So. Back to the book. Ghellow Road is a book written in fiction form, but very strongly based on true events of the writer's childhood. Ms Waters has taken her very stressful childhood memories and created a book that possibly has helped her to process her childhood.
If you read the blurbs about the book, it mentions demons and paranormal - This is referring to some of what the mother was going through. Hearing voices and talking to them. I mention this, because at first I thought it was going to have paranormal events going on, I was picturing ghosts, or poltergeists, maybe exorcisms. I was actually picturing a paranormal story, written diary style, especially after reading a short excerpt with an explosion in it. But the mother is dealing with schizophrenia, which is pretty intense. So this is not a paranormal story, but rather the story of how a young girl survives a stressful, unstable childhood. This young girl, Theresa from early on, witnesses her mother's extreme mood changes and her father's journey from hopeful father and husband to a man who has gone through so much, who apparently had some hidden issues of his own, that he takes his own life. Imagine - dealing with that, and a mother who needs frequent hospitalizations.
Even though these two kids had relatives, these relatives didn't always step up. There was help at times from family, but not often enough. The children ended up in a bad foster care situation once, and other times they were taken in by family members - sleeping on couches, sharing bedrooms, never knowing for how long or when they were going to be booted out of the family's home. Life was pretty unstable for most of their childhood and the two kids ended up separated when the mother kicks the oldest (brother) out of her home. Reading this was hard, because I could never think of a situation where I would ever send one of my kids...even at an adult age, out into the unknown to make do. No Way. But unfortunately not every one has help when they need it, whenever they need it. Even though the boy stays at first with a friend, that situation doesn't last and he ends up in an even worse situation. Heartbreaking.
Even with all they went through, Theresa learned how to push her feelings aside and put up a happy front, so that she could try to fit in with other students -spending so much time at her friend's houses, putting off going home. If you ever have a kid who seems to be happier at your house, and doesn't ever seem to want to leave - there might be a very good reason. And ultimately Theresa does find happiness with a relative, even though it comes a little late, she finally finds a great situation with one of her aunts.
One of the things that I was impressed with, is that the author wasn't afraid to show Theresa's temper tantrums or some of her not so great decision making. I'm sure some would be tempted to make the main character into a very well behaved victim, but I found the times Theresa acted out to be honest. I also thought she did a great job with the dialogue between the characters, making them sound pretty real (well, they WERE real characters).
I found Ghellow Road to be a very powerful book. The main character went through so much that she shouldn't have had to deal with, and yet managed to find friends and what I call second families- those people that take the place of your real toxic relatives. We might all have at least one or two....a mother figure perhaps that we work with, or a friend that you feel like could be a sister....sometimes family is found outside your biological family, even if it's a temporary situation. Sometimes people are able to even mend brokent relationships later in life, or at least to come to an understanding and a new type or relationship with their estranged relatives. Not always though. And yet, everything that you deal with growing up stays with you one way or another. Makes you stronger or breaks you.
I would recommend Ghellow Road - there are so many people growing up and living in unstable homes, in foster care, or with relatives. For as many people who seem to be in great family situations there are just as many who are having a very difficult time, and reading a book like Ghellow Road can shed some light on what it's like living with mental illness or remind some of us others what we've been able to overcome.
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Cover Lovin' - I could never ever, especially at this point in my life, wear a shoe like this. But it would be fun, right? It's so THERE. It's so flamboyant - wonderfully flamboyant and those are for sure some... F=== me heels, pardon my bad language. wink wink. I like this - the all white cover with just the shoe. Nothing else but that sexy shoe. MmmmHMM!
Okay, enough playing around. I'm keeping this review short and sweet because I'm behind in so many, many book reviews...but
Devin O'Branagan is the author a quite a few books, of a variety of subject matter. A complete list can be found at her bookstore website (she also sells a variety of other items-jewelry and dog/cat items), and if you click on that sexy shoe cover, you'll go to Red Hot Liberty's page where you will find quite a few links to excerpts out of the book. It's a nice intro to O'Branagan's writing.
Red Hot Liberty is the sequel to Red Hot Property. It features the return of Molly and co., with the addition of a few more quirky characters. Some VERY quirky characters. One of them a hot British man named Robin. yummy Molly is dealing with a "tween" who is becoming a bit obnoxious in that wonderful way that girl tweens have (moms of girls will know what I mean) she (Molly, not the tween) is being sued by a former client, investigated by the feds, the dog is having romance issues and is depressed, things aren't quite right between Molly and her man, and her life seems to be falling apart. And on top of all that, there is trouble with her ex-husband and some dangerous people who are not happy with him.
As with the previous novel, Devin O'Branagan has written a novel with interesting plot and sub-plots that also contains a series of vignettes of the zaniest real estate agent experiences that you can imagine. In fact, some of the scenes are I Love Lucy 21 century style worthy. Oh yeah. Imagine Lucy and Ethel with a dog that believes she's human (the humans even treat her like a human) trying to run a real estate business. The dog, Talisman, is quite a character. I cracked up at some of the Talisman episodes. Reminds me of watching a show about how some of the super rich deal with their pooches.....OMG Talisman has better care taken of her than many children do.
Red Hot Liberty is a fun, zany read. An interesting story of a single mom making a success out of her life and learning how to trust herself and others. O'Branagan has written a zany story with a few serious subject matters woven in. Broken hearts, mending hearts, new love, money trouble, daughter trouble, safety issues, danger, etc. There are some sober threads made easy to handle with the loony happenings. If we're lucky, our lives could be like that - lots of laughs to counteract the serious scenes of life.
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