Work, Christmas, Kittens, and Les Miserables

I got a promotion at work! I'm the new Merchandising Supervisor of Jewelry and Shoes. Of my two interviews, this was the position that I really wanted and I'm so glad that it worked out. It feels so great to be going back to apparel. It has been so long since I worked with clothing and accessories and I can't wait to dive in. It feels a little like going home in a weird, retail obsessed way. :D I'm not entirely sure when I'll be able to get started. Somebody has to take my place on the inventory team before I can move. It could be a long, impatient wait on my part, but we'll get there. In the meantime, I'm just going to learn what I can when I can and, in the words of a recent college graduate I know, keep on truckin'!

Christmas is coming soon. It will be the first time that I'll be home for Christmas in 5 years. I've never been big on Christmas and I've always had to work, but I miss my family and I'm so excited to see them all again. I got all my shopping done last week. I have a few last minute things to take care of when I get back to Aberdeen but I'm pretty much ready. I'm hoping to catch up with some of my old friends while I'm in town and cram in as much "mommy and me" time as physically possible. She is going to be so sick of me and I'm going to keep rubbing in the love. :) She and my step-dad are leaving for Texas the same day that Erin, Adrian, Phil and I head to Minneapolis for our flight to Orlando so the timing of it all is pretty perfect. If everything goes like I think it will, this will be the best Christmas/New Years ever! Bring on the holidays!


My kittens are coming to Vermillion! I have a stomach ache I'm so excited to see them. My mother is bringing them here, dropping them off, and taking Erin and I back to Aberdeen. I'll only get to see them for about an hour but I plan to squeeze in a much petting and hugging as possible. They will get enough affection to last them my entire Disney trip. Lily, Lola, Samcat, and Oscar-fish will be staying with a friend while I'm away and I know that they are in great hands. She has a cat also so it will be a full house! When I get back from Disney, I can cuddle my babies as often as I want!!! I really can't wait. I've missed them and their ridiculous personality quirks so much. Erin got me a book called Cat vs. Human. It is the documentation of crazy cat lady habits and situations. I find it all to be true and don't think it's crazy at all. ;)


Les Miserables will be in theatres on December 25th and I'm prepared for awesomeness. I'm also prepared for it to suck...but I'm hoping for awesome because it is 2hrs and 37 minutes long and that's an incredible time investment for a crappy movie. Just saying. I read a review for it in Entertainment Weekly that was less than flattering. It didn't seem as though the review writer liked the original musical so I don't know how unbiased their opinion would be. I happen to be a complete nerd about the musical and cried like a hungry infant throughout the entire second act. So I'm assuming that I'll automatically like it exponentially better than some play-hater movie critic. Erin is going to ask her mom if she wants to go so hopefully we'll be able to have a Christmas night mommy date. Nothing is keeping me out of Carmike Cinemas on December 25th. Check out the trailer below if you haven't already seen it (which is impossible because it is every other commercial). Merry Christmas!!

New Toys, Black Friday/Cyber Monday, Interviews, and Witty Wednesday

I have so many new things to play with!!! On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I upgraded my phone to the LG Lucid and on Thanksgiving afternoon, I bought a Kindle Fire! They both got to me on the same day! I didn't know where to start. I just keep switching back and forth between the two and my poor ipod touch is lying neglected on the coffee table, begging to be played with. Sorry ipod, you will be on the back burner for a while I get to know my new electronics. I'm not very tech savvy so it takes me much longer than it should to figure out the simplest things. Any other person can pick up my phone and do things that I never would have known were possible. Luckily, I mostly want the phone for texting and email and I mostly want the Kindle for reading. I have that stuff all figured out and if all else fails, that will be enough for me!

Black Friday and Cyber Monday have both come and gone for another year. I'm happy and sad about it. I'm happy that I can stop scouring for deals and spending all of my money. I'm sad that that I can't have all those good deals all the time. I'm happy to get on with the rest of the holiday season. I'm sad that tacky Christmas music will be full blast until New Years. I had some success on the shopping front. I got a down comforter that has had me sleeping like a rock, a lot of movies, every season of Bones, clothes, a ring, and some headphones. The wonderful thing about it is that I didn't have to pay much for any of it. The other good news is that it will be like Christmas before Christmas while I get all of my packages in the mail. Even though I bought it all, who doesn't love presents!?

I've been interviewing for open department manager positions at work and I'm anxious to see how it all turns out. I had one interview a few days ago and I have a second one this Saturday. Wish me luck!!

WITTY WEDNESDAY!!!!

"Black Friday: because only in america do people trample each other for cheap goods, hours after being thankful for what they already have."

Personally, that's what I love about Amurika! Check ya' later!

Cold, Insanity, and Argo

It is starting to be winter outside! I love winter and I like the cold but I'm sick...as usual. I started getting that tell-tale tickle in my throat last night and this morning it was on fire. I'm medicating like crazy and I want to drown my illness in drugs. Wish me luck! Another way that I can tell its winter is when Samcat gets cuddly. A cold kitty is an unhappy kitty so she gets all up in my junk as often as possible. I can't sit or lay down or sleep without her becoming a vital part of my anatomy. It's adorable...but it also makes it hard to do things like seeing and moving and functioning. On the bright side, she doesn't wake me up every morning anymore. Baby steps.

Erin and I have started doing Insanity. It is very truly insane! When I look back on all of the sports I've played, I can't remember a workout so intense. I'm on day eight and I've lost 6 lbs and have dropped a pants size. I love that the movement is so accessible. I don't need weights, I don't need to be insanely flexible, they encourage you to work on form over speed and to work at your own pace. I'm even to the point where I can move without my muscles screaming at me all day. I had a pretty rough first few days. Walking up and down the stairs seemed like torture and climbing the ladder at work was hell on earth. My muscles have finally adjusted and I can walk without looking like a freak again. :D

Yesterday, Adrian and I went to see Argo. I was on the edge of my seat the ENTIRE time! I don't think I've ever been that stressed out during a movie before. My palms sweat and I almost couldn't handle it. Because I know how to read, I knew what was going to happen, but that didn't stop me from NEEDING to know what happened next. The casting was amazing, everything was stimulating, we got a pretty amazing flashback to the late 70's/early 80's, and we got to see Ben Affleck with the most atrocious of facial hair. I think this movie is Oscar gold and I can't wait to see how it does during award season. I would leave my token hottie pictures at the bottom but there isn't one attractive thing about that time period. I'll leave the trailer for the movie instead. Deuces!

Samcat, Disney, and Movie Monday

Samcat is back! My mom brought her to me about three weeks ago and I couldn't be happier. Our first couple of days were rough because she was so set in my mom's routine. She had developed a habit of waking up and being fed at 5:00 am. So at 5:00 am on the nose, that silly girl woke me up to feed her. I immediately searched for a solution to our problem because if she didn't knock it off, she was going to end up homeless. I love that cat, but I'm not capable of feeling anything but rage at 5 in the morning. I've employed some pretty entertaining behavior modification techniques but it's still a work in progress. At the end of the extraordinarily long day, I'm glad that she's here and will be even more excited to be re-united with Lily and Lola. Once my crazy cat lady status is restored, I will be complete!

I getting so excited to go to Disney World!! December 27th can't come soon enough. I just want to jump ahead to being in the happiest place on earth. Erin, Adrian, Phil, and I are going to live it up for 12 days in Orlando. We're going to check out Universal and wizard around in Harry Potter Land. I can't think of a better vacation for a group of nerds like us. :D

MOVIE MONDAY!!!

I saw a movie a while back that I loved but I haven't blogged about it yet. I realized my oversight today and immediately sought to correct that issue. Pitch Perfect was, by far, the most entertaining thing I've seen in a very long time. From beginning to end I was enthralled. I laughed, I gagged, I tapped my toes to some rocking tunes. It was ACAMAZING!! If that college existed, I'd most certainly be going there. Anna Kendrick was a breath of fresh air. She is my favorite thing about Twilight and she might just be my favorite thing about the movies this year. Between What to Expect When You're Expecting and Pitch Perfect, she has had a really great 2012 at the movies. I'm putting my favorite clip from the movie below. It is of a Riff Off which is about the nerdiest most amazing thing that I've ever wanted to be a part of. Enjoy it and I'll check you later! Deuces.

Changes, Samcat, and Nikita

I would like to say that I haven't blogged in a while because I've been blindingly busy, but in all actuality I haven't had anything to say. Life isn't too interesting when your soul purpose is to make money. I go to work, I come home, I sleep, I watch television. I'm singing in Men's and Women's Chorus on Tuesday nights but that is the extent of all my excitement. It is nice to slow down and breathe for a change but now I'm going a little too slow. I find that I'm having a hard time staying motivated. I don't practice as much as I should, I don't research as much as I should, I don't even visit my mother as much as I should. I had an epiphany today. It told me that I'm a lazy pile and if I don't break the trend now, it might never happen. So here we go! Let's see how my kick in the butt goes. I scoped out a bunch of summer programs today that I might want to apply to and am in the process of trying to put together possible rep for auditions. I even spent some time thinking about graduate school! I've got really indefinite plans for my next 6 months or so but I know that by May I'll be out of Vermillion and, hopefully, have some exciting summer opportunities to experience. Changes they are a comin'!

I MISS SAMCAT SOOOO MUCH!!! I'm trying to get home next weekend to visit her but I don't know if it's going to happen. I hung out with Amy and Lee's cat, Puzzles, and I just wanted my own furry ball of love in my arms. That was really all I had to say about that...Samcat definitely needed her own paragraph. Oh! I also miss Lily and Lola...

In my epic amounts of leisure time, I've come across yet another television show that I'm addicted to. My addictive personality is something that I've come to terms with...you should too...
Anyway! The show is called Nikita. It is a revamp of the 90's television show which is a spin of the 1990 film La Femme Nikita. The premise of all three is that there's a rogue government organization that finds young, attractive people in prison, fakes their death, and then turns them into smoking hot super spies. Nikita is the best agent of them all and goes rogue herself. She tries to take out the organization in an effort to right all of the wrongs she's committed. Hi-jinks ensue. I've covered 30 of 47 episodes in the last 4 days. Thank you Netflix! The new season starts in a couple of weeks and I'm in a hurry to get all caught up. It has me diving around the apartment pretending that I'm a spy...which nobody was supposed to know... *cough cough* So yeah...you should watch it. The cast is ridiculously attractive, of course, and there are twists and turns galore. Til next time!

Gracelessness, Magic Flute, True Blood, and Movie Monday!!

I have slammed my knee into two different things today and both times it hurt so bad I wanted to either pass out or throw up. Did it happen while I was saving burning orphans from a building? Did it happen in a lab accident while I was curing cancer? Did it happen when I was serving my country in a foreign land? No...the first time I was getting into Erin's car and the second time I ran into the coffee table. I couldn't be more pathetic if I tried. Erin, my compassionate and caring roommate, laughed at me while I writhed in tears on the floor. That's love man.

I'm saddling up for a week of dress rehearsals and awesome performances of The Magic Flute!
The rehearsals have been going really well and the I think the final project will be spectacular. I can't believe it's only 5 days away! The music is all in German with English super-titles and the dialogue has been wittily re-written in English. It is funny and family friendly. Watching professionals own the stage is such an awe-inspiring experience. My mom is coming and I can't wait for her to see it. EVERYONE SHOULD SEE IT!!! That's just my humble opinion of course...but...you should probably get your tickets, like yesterday!

I've started reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels. I've watched True Blood since the beginning and figured that I should commit to reading the print behind the awesomeness. I'm pretty addicted.
It got to the point last night that I was watching True Blood on TV while I was reading the 5th Sookie Stackhouse novel. I sang along to the theme song and made up fun new harmonies. All of these things make me a nerd on soooo many levels. When Adrian came over, I geeked out all over the place. I'm heartbroken that I don't have HBO because I can't watch the new episodes until they are released on DVD. I haven't even seen all of season 4 yet! I'm working on it though. I never thought that I could get into a show set in the deep south. No offense to those who live/lived there, but the accent makes it really hard for me to take them seriously. I'm going to fault Larry the Cable Guy for my subconscious stereotype. ANYWAY!!!  I love it and I'm whipping through these books as quickly as I can. If you haven't read them, do it!

MOVIE MONDAY!!!

All of my dreams finally came true at 9:20 pm on Sunday night. I bought my $3 ticket to the discount theatre, bought my reasonably priced popcorn, and sat in my broken theatre seat to see Magic Mike. I don't know where to begin! I don't really know what the movie was about, but who really cares!? Movie makers didn't put Matthew McConaughey, Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer, Alex Pettyfer, and Joe Manganiello on screen half naked because they wanted to sell a really deep, intellectual plot. They put these beautiful creatures in front of me in their natural form so that I could enjoy the constant ripple of their well-toned muscles. And so I did. And I would do it again...on repeat for days. Jared said that it was funny...but like I said...the details are fuzzy for me. I'll take his word for it. I recommend it for anyone who wants to delude themselves about what middle aged men look like. Enjoy the pictures and enjoy your week. Peace!

Work, America's Next Top Model, and Witty Wednesday!!!

It's been a little while! I have realized that in the absence of school and summer time activity, I don't have very interesting things to talk about. But....I'mma talk anyway! I switched from cashiering to inventory at work. Today was my third day and I'm liking it quite a bit. I'm constantly on the go and don't really have any down time to be bored. The days go by soooo fast and the hours are perfect for me. I'm terrified of my first day without my supervisor. I'll probably burn the store to the ground and not even know it. It's a bridge I'll have to cross when I come to it but I've been having some strange side-effects. Obnoxiously enough, I had a nightmare about it last night. Its a little ridiculous but it happened. In light of the fact that I'm now having nightmares about failing at Walmart...I've decided that I need to invest in a new hobby. I don't know what it will be yet but its going to be awesome!!! Stay tuned to find out what sick skill I develop next. :)

I've started watching season 19 of America's Next Top Model. Yes, I'm mildly embarrassed but I'm doing it anyway. I've been watching since season one and it has hit an ultimate low. This season, Tyra is featuring college students from all over the country. She goes from fashion schools to online schools to Ivy League schools. She comes up with a bunch of no-talent, diva-tastic, drama queens. Hijinks ensue. There is a girl who is so attached to her mother that she doesn't think that she'll ever get married because her mother completes her...wow. Oedipus had nothing on this chick! I'll keep watching (because I can't help myself) and I'll let you know what happens!!!

WITTY WEDNESDAY!!!

I've been trying to make sure that I stay in touch with my music while I'm taking time off from school. I feel like the test of time is the only one I can take to find out how dedicated I am. So far I'm missing all of my ensembles like crazy and I think that's a good sign. Some days I feel like I'm experiencing legitimate withdrawal. Although that might sound unhealthy, I've decided that it is better than any other addiction. Robert Nesta Marley said it best:

Denverstone 2012, Plan Changing, and Tacky Tuesday!

Denverstone 2012 (a.k.a. Yolostone) was an epic success! I had so much fun. We didn't see any bears but it is a disappointment that I'm starting to get over. We started off going to Denver. After we almost ran out of gas on the interstate (thanks to Adrian) we made it safely into the city. We went and visited Tory's uncle at the firehouse that he works at. It was pretty cool. He gave us a tour and showed us what they do with all their down time. It was definitely something neat to learn about. After that, we went to Tory's aunt's house and met the family. They had a very nice house and three gorgeous daughters. There were also two dogs, a goldfish, and miscellaneous window dwelling animals. On day 2 we went to Elitch Gardens and got our roller coaster on.

I was doing really well until we got on the Sidewinder. The Sidewinder is a short track roller coaster that shoots you to the end and then reverses you backwards to where you started. I was not okay with going backwards. It kind of turned me off. Luckily there was only one more roller coaster after that so I didn't miss much. I really liked the lazy river and wave pool in the water park.

There was an unfortunate almost drowning incident while the wave pool was going (which Tory found amusing) but I was only temporarily on the brink of death. :) Sprinterbadger was on the fritz so we took the bus/van to a mechanic. The next morning we headed into the wild blue yonder. 11 hours later, we rolled into the Grand Tetons. We stayed out there for a few days, went on a very non-scenic hike, and visited an exciting Jackson Hole T-Shirt store before heading into Yellowstone. The days blend together after that. We saw Old Faithful, watched a herd of buffalo stall traffic for a strange amount of time, looked for bears, and drank unknown amounts of beer. Everything was beautiful and so vast that it made me feel very small and insignificant. I really enjoyed just staring into the endless sky. The mountains went on forever and it seemed like you could follow it to the end of the world. I couldn't duplicate that feeling anywhere else on the planet. The 20 hour drive back was grueling enough to make one forget the beauty, but luckily I took pictures!

Upon my return, I changed my plans up a bit. Kenny isn't going to be ready to move to Chicago until November so I'll be hanging around Vermillion for a little longer than expected. I've moved from Ashley's apartment into Erin's 2nd bedroom and am settling in for a couple more months of living the dream. :S I think living with Erin is going to be great. She is most definitely going to inadvertently teach me to be the cleanest me that I can be. She is scary neat. I'm so jealous. Even when I'm at my best her housekeeping abilities put mine to shame. I'm going blame my cats for the reason that I don't have nice things and leave it at that. This plan change might be for the best though. We booked our trip to Disney World (!!!) and I'll be able to save more money living in South Dakota. I'm going to take my lemons and make the best lemonade ever! The main downside to not having my own place is that Samcat isn't doing very well. She isn't happy to be at my parent's house and she isn't eating very well. I was home last weekend and she's probably lost about 2 pounds. Poor baby. The kittens are thriving and will be just fine. Lola finally put on some weight which is good for her. So I just have to keep Samcat from falling into the pits of emotional despair for a couple more months and then rescue her from the bad place. It will be nice to have three cats in bed with me again...which is why I'll never get married...

TACKY TUESDAY!!!

I'll keep it short today because I've been awfully long-winded up to this point. I find crying children to be extremely tacky. As we traversed the mountain side, there were children everywhere on vacation with their families. And it seemed as though all of those children were being tortured. They were all screaming and crying like they were being stabbed in the eyelids. I just can't see the appeal in having any of those. Even more tacky are the parents who just stand there and don't do anything while their child's shrieks impede on other people's vacation. I'm trying to enjoy myself and talk to my friends but they can't hear me over the ill-behaved infant that nobody will shut up. If you can't keep your kid quiet, leave them at home! Another reason that I'll probably never get married...

Bared to You

Goodreads Synopsis:

He was beautiful and brilliant, jagged and white-hot. I was drawn to him as I'd never been to anything or anyone in my life. I craved his touch like a drug, even knowing it would weaken me. I was flawed and damaged, and he opened those cracks in me so easily...

Gideon knew. He had demons of his own. And we would become the mirrors that reflected each other's most private wounds... and desires. The bonds of his love transformed me, even as I prayed that the torment of our pasts didn't tear us apart...


Bared to You by Sylvia Day
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm NOT going to compare this book to Fifty Shades of Grey. That seems to be the theme of most reviews. It has similarities but I think they are in entirely different leagues so I won't waste my breath. That being said, I really enjoyed Sylvia Day's writing style. I liked the way she characterized and I like that she made these two people a match for each other. I think she would have been better off leaving out the reveal of dominant and submissive. It didn't need saying because it was written so well into the subtext. It seemed forced when it was brought up and out of character for both Gideon and Eva. It made Eva weak where she had been strong and added a coldness to Gideon when he was naturally developing warmth.

I loved that Eva was firey and comfortable with herself. She was developed well as a victim who came back and perservered despite an awful childhood. She had her pick of men and owned her sexiness. She didn't take any crap from anybody and could hold her own against anyone. After the mention of her being a submissive, she became weak and I didn't like her anymore. It is a horrible thing for someone who came from her background to end up submitting to a man when she's worked so hard to overcome those demons. It totally reverts all of the work she's done on getting past being a victim. It was very sad. She started spouting her declarations of love and it just got so needy and old. I just don't understand how you go from completely independent to completely co-dependent in one day. The same goes for Gideon. He was so used to having short-term sexual relationships and then suddenly he turned his entire life upside down after knowing this woman for a week.

Perhaps the plot was just too fast paced for me. I understand that if I had to wait for this plot develop over an extended period of time, it could get boring. I have to believe there is a correct pacing though. It is all so irrational. All of their personal problems point to trust issues and a need to be assertive and independent. You don't break through all of your old issues and run the emotional gamut so quickly. They need to be thoroughly medicated if their personalities are altering themselves that quickly.

I'm not sure what role Cary will play throughout the remainder of the series. He seems really important to Eva but his last scene in the book was rather awkward and unresolved. He also has mood swings but at least he has a cause in the shape of his drug addiction. Everyone is very emotionally complex. It can be a lot to deal with. Despite that, I really cared about the characters. Well...I cared about Eva and Cary. I didn't really care about Gideon's emotional well being. I think that will change as I get to know more about him but for now, I'm left wanting for everything besides the extremely detailed descriptions of his penis.

All of the above comes off pretty negative....but I really did like the book and am excited to see what happens next. The chemistry is fantastic and I'm hoping that some of my issues will be taken care of as the characters continue to develop. More than I'm excited to read the rest of this series, I'm excited to read more of Day's books. She has a gift. She can make me enjoy a book with questionably tasteful content. I'd love to see what she can do with something really interesting. Day timed this series perfectly to get the most exposure and the most positive feedback. Kudos.

View all my reviews

Yellowstone, New LapTop, and the Olympics!

Tomorrow is the day! I'm finally hitting the road for anywhere but here. :D In roughly four hours, I'll be loading up the van/bus and heading for Denver. After going to Elitch Gardens and perhaps the zoo, we will head out for Yellowstone. I can't wait to relax and read and be with my friends and not be at work and not be in Vermillion. This adventure is long overdue and the next four hours will not go by fast enough. As soon as I get back I'm diving into rehearsals so I really need to live it up!

I got a new laptop! I'm typing on my pretty new Gateway. It isn't perfect yet because I'm experiencing the hardships of buying a laptop without all of my programs pre-loaded. It can get really expensive! Just buying Microsoft Office is ridiculous. It's especially ridiculous because I just want Word. If I wanted to buy word separately, it would only be about $10 less. Sooooo silly! More than I'm upset about that, I'm just excited to have a new computer. I can blog whenever I want and check my email and look at facebook....my life makes sense again. I don't know how to use half of the buttons yet....but some things take time!

The U.S. is rocking it out at the London Olympics! I've been hijacking Phil's television as often as possible so that I don't miss a moment of gymnastics and swimming awesomeness. We have been yo-yoing back and forth with China for highest medal count but I'm confident that we'll end up on top! Despite a rough start, Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian of all time and Gabby Douglas won the women's individual all-around. The men's gymnastics team tanked like rock stars and it was super hard to watch. I felt so bad for them. They had such high hopes and they looked so good in the qualifiers but they just didn't deliver. I can do nothing but feel sorry for them. I can't imagine being under that kind of pressure. It takes nerves of steel. Despite that bauble, job well done U.S.A.!!

I will definitely update with the hilarity of camping and adventures!

Melissa, Olympics, Yellowstone and Theatre Thursday!

After many days of sanity threatening Walmart experiences, I'm finally taking some time off! Tomorrow at the crack of dawn, I'll be moving my car to Ames, Iowa where the enchanting Melissa lives. I just need to get through one more shift and I'm home free. I couldn't be more excited about it. I haven't been to Melissa's new apartment so I'm eager to see how she's living these days. If she lives with bugs...I'm visiting from the hotel. :) Melissa dislikes bugs almost as much as I do so I don't think this will be the case. While I'm at Melissa's, a little known sporting event will be getting started. I'm on the edge of my seat to see as much of the Olympics as humanly possible. Gymnastics, swimming, diving, rowing, running, basketball, volleyball....I love everything! I think I'll pass on trampoline and badminton but sign me up for everything else!

About a week after I get back from visiting Melissa, I begin an epic journey to Wyoming to enjoy its wonder and adventure. Yellowstone will be our home for about 8 days and I intend to make the most of it. I'm also very excited to hit up Elitch Gardens on the way. I haven't been on a roller coaster in many years and I can't wait to end that abstinence. I will definitely have stories to share after that trip. I can't imagine 6 people stuck in a van/tent for 10 days not having amazing stories. So get excited for Melissa, the Olympics, and Yellowstone. I've been waiting for this part of the summer since it started and now, it is all within my grasp! Muafafafafafa!

THEATER THURSDAY!!!

This week we will actually be talking about something I saw in theaters. I know that's what Movie Monday is for but I missed it and I really want to talk about this movie. So deal with it! The movie is (drum roll)........Dark Knight Rises.
Adrian, Phil, and I went to Sioux City on Monday to see this movie and I liked it quite a bit. Now that I've gotten over the fact that Christian Bale has to destroy his vocal cords as part of his epic heroism, he's finally grown on me. There were so many things about this movie that I liked and a couple that I didn't. Let's get started!

I really appreciated the ridiculously attractive cast. Christian Bale, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Matthew Modine, Daniel Sunjata...it was pretty much all good news. Even Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgen Freeman were rocking the attractive old guy thing. Can't lose!
I also loved that Marion Cotillard, turned out to be the bad guy. I totally didn't see it coming and she shifted effortlessly into an evil persona. She had conviction, passion, and explosive weapons. LOVED IT! I liked that the movie was a bit of a tear-jerker. If Michael Caine is crying, so am I. He is such an amazing actor and he really sucked me into everything. I adored Anne Hathaway as a pseudo-reformed bad girl. She really pulled it off. I didn't think she had it in her. I'll be interested to see the miracle of her pulling off Fantine in Les Mis...but that's an entirely different blog. I liked very much that they made Bane much cooler than he was in Batman & Robin. It wasn't hard, as that movie was an epic train wreck (sorry George!), but I was legitimately terrified of Bane. The bad guys have been so amazing under the guidance of Christopher Nolan. I'm a little sad that this will be the last one, but I think that it is good to go out with a bang. The Batman franchise will be revived again and again but I believe that this re-boot will always stand out as great.

That brings me into what I didn't like. If this was the last movie and they have no plans for more, why was there such an epic cliffhanger with the Robin character discovering the bat cave and Bruce Wayne not dying. It is too much for my fragile emotions to handle! I suppose if that is my biggest problem...it isn't so bad.

Pure

Goodreads Synopsis:

 We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . . 
Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

 Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . . 
There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it’s his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

 When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.


Pure by Julianna Baggott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It took me a very long time to read this book. More time than any other book that I've ever read. Normally, it would be because I didn't like it and was dragging my way through it. This time it was because I finally burned myself out on dystopic novels. I'm taking an official break from them now that I've finally finished this.

That being said, the book was quite good. It was interesting and had something different about it that set it slightly apart from every other novel of its kind. It wasn't completely set around teen romance (which is a relief). I really cared about the characters and their well being and I was kept on my toes for the most part. There was a lot of things that I could see coming because they followed the basic form of "dystopic teen book 101", but there was also some amazing imagery and genuinely creative ideas. The writing style was easy to follow and everything was well developed. It ended in a way that made it clear that there was more to come and that it was going to be good.

The extensive time period that it took for me to read the book might be marring my judgement but I really can't think of anything that I didn't like about it. I'll definitely pick up the next one and I expect great things from Julianna Baggott in the future.

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Long Time!

So I've been away for a while. No worries! I'm still alive. Woohoo!! My laptop died an unexpected death and I'm in the process of working my fanny off to buy a new one. In the meantime, my access to the internet is sporadic at best. Hopefully the four people who read these blogs will be patient and stick with me. :D

I just finished moving out of my house and am in the process of being a nomad. I'm staying at Ashley and Brie's right now and then will be staying with Erin after I get back from Yellowstone. After that, I'm moving to Chicago with Kenny and will be reunited with the kitten loves of my life and stability...and internet and cable. Can't wait for that!

In the meantime, it's just me and Oscar-fish. We are sad and lonely but we do what we can. I'll update whenever possible and let everyone know how Wal-mart is. I know that everyone wants to know that. :)

Stick with me peeps!!!

Job, Housing, Sandbar, Hector-Fish, and Freaky Friday!

My private contracting job is finally starting to show promise. It was put on hold for a while but I'm supposed to be able to start on Monday! I really hope this works out because working from home sounds like a dream. I had a meeting yesterday morning to get all the details and now I'm just waiting for them to send me the software that I need. Be on watch, I could be calling your house very soon to see where you stand politically. Get ready!

I also have my housing situation all figured out. That was a HUGE relief. I was starting to have nightmares about living in my car for two months. I'll be staying at Ashley and Brie's apartment from mid-July to mid-August and then Erin offered to let me stay at her place from then until mid-September when the opera is over. Whew! Now all I have to do is move everything I own back to my parent's house and find an apartment in Chicago all while working one full-time job and a second part-time job and getting ready for this opera. NBD! In all reality, this is probably the least busy that I've been in the last few years. I feel like I get so much more accomplished when I have a million things to do in a very short period of time. Bring on the chaos!!

I've been a little agitated as of late. My sandbar has been sullied by a hillbilly with an attitude problem. Adrian and I were out on the beach and when we went back to the car, there was a note on the windshield. The note said that we were trespassing and if we didn't call him, he was going to turn Adrian's license plate number over to the authorities. Thinking that the whole thing was absurd, I call the number. The man immediately started ripping into me. I explained to him that at no point do we ever cross the fence and that we stay out of the area that is covered by the private property signs. We stick pretty close to the beach. This was something I was really conscious of because I didn't want to have this exact problem. He said that he owns all the land up to the water. When I inquired why his fence is nowhere near the water, he lost it. He kept saying that he was friends with the Game Warden and the Deputy Sheriff. I told him that according to his signing and the fence we weren't trespassing and I told him that I was going to get in touch with the sheriff. I told him that if the sheriff said we could be there, we would continue to go there. He said that people have been stealing his game surveillance equipment...I don't even know what that consists of. I wasn't going to justify his veiled accusation with a response and I just told him that I'd be in touch with the sheriff. I'm planning on going back out there to take pictures of the signs and fence and then videotape the path we take down the beach. I'm going to show them to the sheriff and see if we can find the property lines for that area. If he owns it, I obviously don't want to trespass. If he doesn't own it, you can bet that I'll be back. It is a nice place and I'm not going to let some jerk scare me away.

Two days ago someone returned a dead fish to Walmart. Shortly after, the fish started swimming around. Walmart policy doesn't allow us to put the fish back in the tank so we were supposed to wait for it to die so that we could dispose of it. It broke my heart. It just didn't seem right to let him die like that. I named him Hector and Erin asked management if I could take him home. They said yes so Adrian, Phil, and I got supplies and took Hector home. The cats were mind blown. They didn't know what to make of Hector. He seemed like he was having a rough time. He had a bad fin and the scales near his tale were completely gone. Despite this, I got my hopes up and was very excited to have a new addition to our motley crew of a family. This morning I came out into the living room and Hector was dead. I was really sad. I was already accustomed to having him around. I've decided that I'm going to get another fish because I already have all the supplies. I'm thinking I'll name it Hector Jr. but we'll have to see what he looks like. RIP Hector-Fish. For your short time in our household, you were loved. :-(

FREAKY FRIDAY!!!

Today I'm going to talk about something that freaks out Adrian. Sssssnaaaakkkkesssss. :) I'm not scared of snakes but Adrian is easily destroyed in the face of snakes. The reason I bring it up is because we are going camping in the Black Hills next weekend and Brie, another snake hater, brought up the fact that there are snakes there. I'm thrilled with the possibility that we might see one and that Adrian will be scared out of his mind. It is mean spirited but he laughs at me every time I run from bugs so this is a little bit of payback. I might even have to go looking for a snake so that my enjoyment is guaranteed. I'll never tell if it happens though. You'll never know for sure if it was a coincidence or if it was a deliberate fiendish act. Keep an eye out for the results of this adventure. It should be excellent. :-D

Fifty Shades of Grey

Goodreads Synopsis:

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

 Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.


Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have been putting off reading this book for a while. Every time I picked it up in a store to buy it, I talked myself out of it. I finally caved and bought it. It took me much longer to read than it should have because I kept having to put it down. There are two reasons that I needed to put it down from time to time.

1. The writing style is absolutely awful. We are following the story in the mind of a 22 year old but she seems like a 12 year old. She seems to have multiple personalities and can't mentally articulate beyond "oh" and "what". Anastasia is the most obnoxious character. I really can't stand her. She was a submissive for a very small portion of the book and she cried like a baby whenever he did exactly what he told her he was going to do. Every character had extreme mood-swings that were impossible to keep up with. Christian caved on his contract and altered his lifestyle in the blink of an eye. It just didn't match up with the badass character that E.L. James had developed earlier in the book. The writing would get so bad that I had to put it down just to keep from tearing it in half.

2. The sex is amazing. Despite all of James' shortcomings as an author, she knows how to write some good sex. You really couldn't help getting caught up in it all. I've read a few romance novels in my day and I'd say that James knows her way around the bedroom. The sex was so good and so constant that I had to put it down because it was making me blush. I kept looking around the breakroom at my job to make sure nobody could tell that I was reading something naughty.

I almost gave the book 2 stars because the writing was so abhorrent. I upped it to three because it got me hot and bothered. That's worth a star any day. ;)

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Goodreads Synopsis:

 By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?


Wither by Lauren DeStefano
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book was...not my favorite. I had a hard time pinpointing exactly what I didn't like about it. I'm thinking that my major issue is that it lacked substance. We never got to know any of the characters very well. It is difficult to feel an attachment to something that you don't understand very well. We were told what the physical appearance of everyone was but there wasn't any emotional depth. I shouldn't say there wasn't any, there just wasn't very much. Whenever a character died, I thought that the feelings were described accurately...but...it all just seemed like dystopic book writing by numbers. It seemed really formulated. I especially despised the way that the book ended.

I understand that this book is the first in a series (as all books have to do now :S)but I just wanted a tad bit more of a hook. The ending of this book gave me no incentive to read the next one. I will because I want to see how the story evolves, but from the way the book ended I wouldn't have even known that it was part of a series if I hadn't looked it up.

Sterile. I think that's the word that I'm looking for. This story is sterile. The main character was a victim of a crime that was running rampant throughout her time period. She knew it would happen and she knew what was expected of her. Nothing bad really happened to her. She was kidnapped but she wasn't raped, she was treated like a queen, and she was angsty as all get out. Her emotions are really confusing. She loves Gabriel...but she kind of loves her husband...but she can't love him because his father kidnapped her and he doesn't even know it...but she likes the way he makes her feel...but she needs to get out just so she can prove that she can...it is all so annoying. It's difficult to get into a book if you don't like the main character. That's what happened with me here. Hopefully the books will progress and I will grow to like her. I guess we'll see!

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Night Road

Goodreads Synopsis:

For eighteen years, Jude Farraday has put her children’s needs above her own, and it shows—her twins, Mia and Zach—are bright and happy teenagers. When Lexi Baill moves into their small, close knit community, no one is more welcoming than Jude. Lexi, a former foster child with a dark past, quickly becomes Mia’s best friend. Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable.

Jude does everything to keep her kids safe and on track for college. It has always been easy-- until senior year of high school. Suddenly she is at a loss. Nothing feels safe anymore; every time her kids leave the house, she worries about them.

 On a hot summer’s night her worst fears come true. One decision will change the course of their lives. In the blink of an eye, the Farraday family will be torn apart and Lexi will lose everything. In the years that follow, each must face the consequences of that single night and find a way to forget…or the courage to forgive.


Night Road by Kristin Hannah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was the most heartbreaking story that I have ever read. I couldn't put it down. I just had to keep reading and see how these complex characters would find their way back to happiness. I cried for the majority of the second half of the book and it really made me feel something. The imagery made it really easy for me to step into the shoes of each character. As someone who has lost a sibling, I found the emotions and reactions to be dead on. She really capture the raw, tortured feelings that people have when they lose someone. I really can't go on enough about how much the story touched me.

The only thing that I didn't like was how over-descriptive Kristin Hannah was on occasion. I found myself skipping entire paragraphs because they were full of irrelevant information. It didn't happen a lot though and it is easily compensated for by all the amazing writing that she did. She really makes you want to find Lexi and shelter her. She is so selfless and deserving but she gets nothing but stepped on. I wanted to be her friend and make her life easier.

I have nothing else to say. The book was phenomenal and I highly recommend it to people who want to read a good tear-jerker.

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Unearthly

Goodreads Synopsis:

 In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

 As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

 Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would. The concept of the book was so quickly revealed that I wasn't sure where it could go. I also wasn't sure how interesting a book about a teenaged angel could be. But it was surprisingly interesting and I couldn't put it down.

As usual with me, there were a couple of things that I didn't like. I thought Angela's character was overdeveloped. I expected her to have more involvement because of how much she was set up. Cynthia Hand wrote so much about Angela's research on Black Wings and the Black Wing section was less than a chapter. I thought that was unnecessary. There are at least two more books in this series so perhaps Angela and all of her research will become more important in the next installment. I was also very frustrated by the ending. I think it was geared that way and it definitely worked. I was furious that I didn't know what was going to happen between Clara and Tuck or Clara and Christian or Clara and her mother. And what the heck is going on with Jeffrey. I was left with so many unanswered questions. I'm sure that the questions are taken care of in Hallowed but I think that there might have been a few too many cliff hangers. It made the book seem incomplete versus it leaving you in suspense. There was no real conclusion. I found that irritating.

Beyond those things, I thought this was a very well written book. It packed a lot of punches and kept you guessing until you found out the truth about Christian. Cynthia Hand is a creative writing professor at Pepperdine University so she knows a little bit about writing a great story. I'm excited to see what happens next!!

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Tacky Tuesday!

I work at Walmart. Right now we are trying to raise money for Children's Miracle Network.

It's a good cause and I'm happy to ask customers if they would like to donate. I typically end each transaction by saying "Would you like to make a donation to Children's Miracle Network?" It is a simple yes or no question that you think would be quick and easy to deal with. "Yes I would like to" or "No, thank you" are the desired responses. I'm not upset or offended when people say they don't want to donate. I do get upset when people are rude about it. Walmart is paying me to ask for donations. I don't think anybody gets paid well enough to deal with daily barrages of verbal abuse. I used to work at a student loan call center so I know what it's like to deal with angry people who can't afford to pay their bills and are looking for someone to take it out on. That is totally different than getting upset with a cashier in a supermarket because you don't want to donate $1 to sick children. It is just plain uncalled for. I especially love it when people want to get angry and rude in front of their own kids. They are setting the example for the charity donators of tomorrow. I've seen so many rude children parrot the things that their rude, undereducated parents say. One parent said that he wouldn't donate because the world is over-populated and letting children get sick and die is how we control it...in front of his kid. He wasn't being sarcastic either. I have never been so appalled in my life. I think that he will feel differently if something horrible ever happens to his child. I don't wish that for him but I also hope his kid grows up to be less of a jerk. It is a vicious cycle and it hurts me to see it.

Some customers even go as far as saying that I can't ask them to donate and that they have a right to shop without being asked to donate to Walmart's bank account. Here is some education for the haters of big business asking to support a charity: 100% of the proceeds from our fundraiser are going to local families in need. Also, Walmart can try to sell you anything they want to while you're in Walmart. If they want to give you samples of food you hate, say "no, thank you" and deal with it. If they want to ask you to take coupons for a product that you don't want, say "no, thank you" and deal with it. If they want to ask you if you would like the opportunity to donate to sick children in your area and you don't want to, say "no, thank you" and deal with it! Your cashier is much less likely to bag your eggs in the bag with the 10 lb pickle jar if you aren't rude to them. I, of course, would never do that...I'm just saying! Beyond that, there are options. We live in a town of 12,000 people that has three grocery stores. We are a town that is close to bigger towns and cities that have even more options. If you don't like the way that Walmart does business, shop somewhere else. Beating up on the cashier just makes you look stupid. Cashiers have no power. We can't make any decisions for ourselves and have absolutely no control over anything. So yelling at me and telling me where I can stick it just doesn't make any sense at all. It makes a person look petty, rude, and disrespectful. There are a lot people who apparently don't mind looking like a jerk with no manners and I understand that I have to deal with that. But...I definitely think it's tacky.

Movie Monday!

On June 1st Snow White and the Huntsman will be wide released into theaters near you. I'm not sure why I'm so excited. Could it be that I want to look at Chris Hemsworth some more? Could it be that I enjoy watching Kristen Stewart destroy every role that she takes on? Could it be that Charlize Theron stuns me with every character she portrays? I can't say what the main source of my curiosity is. I can say that I'm going to see this movie. There are quite a few movies being released that use the story of Snow White. Mirror Mirror came out in March with Julia Roberts at the helm. Snow White: A Deadly Summer came out in March with a cast of unknowns steering the ship. Now we have this version. I think it has the potential to be the best rendition of all the attempts. If the screenwriter was smart, he would have written lots of action and not so much talking for our lovely little Snow. I just think things are better when she doesn't talk. Physically, I think she has the perfect look for Snow White and with proper direction, the film could be great. I have high hopes with a backup plan of low expectations. Have a peek at the trailer below and cross your fingers that it turns out to be an awesome cinematic adventure.

Cold, Camping, Magic Flute, and Sexy Saturday

I'm finally over my cold! I only had it for about 3 weeks...because that isn't obnoxious at all. I'm going to try singing tomorrow and I have pretty high hopes. This cold has made functioning miserable. I've been having to convince myself to leave the warm comfort of my bed. I don't hate my life anymore so I'm trying to get pumped for the summer. It seems to be flying by quickly and I'm tired of missing it because of my sinuses. Bring on the sunshine. Memorial Day brings many things that I love. The one I love most is the opening of the swimming pools! I can't wait to lounge in the sun by a chlorinated water source full of sugar-jumped children. These are the memories that we live for!

Despite my open dislike for children, pools are my savior. I've been resorting to lounging by the river in the sand bar. This is pleasant except for the sand...everywhere. I recently went camping in the sand bar with Adrian and Phil. I had a lot of fun playing in the sand by a raging fire. Sleeping in the sand doesn't suck quite as much as sleeping on hard ground and I had so much fun that I didn't really care anyway. The one thing I couldn't get over was the sand covering everything that we own.
It just embeds itself in every nook and cranny of your existence. I just can't handle it anymore. I will still go to the river and enjoy the solitude. I just need a more exfoliate-free avenue for sunning myself. Yay pools! Adrian was talking about us going to Wild Water West this coming Monday and I'm totally game! Woot water! I've never been before and I can't wait! We are also planning a camping trip for late June and then we are headed to Yellowstone in early August. I'm getting pretty good a roughing it for a girl who went camping for the first time last summer. Call me Annie Oakley!

I got cast in the chorus for Sound of South Dakota's production of Die Zaubeflote! I got an email last night and I couldn't be happier. A lot of people from USD were cast which is very exciting. Rehearsal starts August 18th and the finished product shows on September 15 and 16. I'm so excited to get started. It is going to be such an amazing experience. I'll be moving to Chicago right in the middle of everything and I anticipate being overstimulated and euphoric throughout the entire process. I'll probably cry. Lots of hugging. I'll never admit to a thing. :)

SEXY SATURDAY!!!!

I know it seems like I only post on Sexy Saturday. It isn't just that I love eye-pleasing specimens. It is mostly because I am available most Saturdays. I'm not heartbroken by this and am excited to let you know who I think is hot this week! I recently went to the movie "What to Expect When You're Expecting". This almost forced me into highlighting the entire cast again. This is a very good looking cast of people. The most notable being Cameron Diaz, Chace Crawford, Jennifer Lopez, Dennis Quaid, Elizabeth Banks, Brooklyn Decker, Anna Kendrick, Matthew Morrison, Rodrigo Santoro, Chris Rock, and the current object of my affection...Joe Manganiello.
I began following him on True Blood. He played a sexy werewolf that we would all want to join a pack with. When his rippling abs wandered across screen in "WTEWYE", my whole day was better. More than that, there was a preview for a different movie that Mangianiello will be in called "Magic Mike". When this movie comes out, it will definitely show up here on the nearest Saturday. It also has a sexy cast including Alex Petyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Matt Bomer, Channing Tatum, and of course Mr. Manganiello. The movie could be the most horrible thing that's ever happened to cinema, but you can bet that I'll be in the front row drooling over the actors' new found stripping techniques. I have a new hobby. Wherever Manganiello goes shirtless, I will be there. That's dedication. :) Check out the trailer below and join my obsession!

City of Fallen Angels

Goodreads Synopsis:

 The Mortal War is over, and Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her. She's training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last. And—most important of all—Clary can finally call Jace her boyfriend.

But nothing comes without a price.

Someone is murdering the Shadowhunters who used to be in Valentine’s Circle, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second bloody war. Clary’s best friend, Simon, can’t help her. His mother just found out he’s a vampire and now he’s homeless. Everywhere he turns, someone wants him on their side—along with the power of the curse wrecking his life. And they’re willing to do anything to get what they want. At the same time he’s dating two beautiful, dangerous girls—neither of whom knows about the other.

When Jace begins to pull away from Clary without explaining why, she is forced to delve into the heart of a mystery whose solution reveals her worst nightmare: She herself has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves. Even Jace.


City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have been waiting to get my hands on this book for a while. I read the other three books fairly quickly and was excited to see how the story ends. A fifth book recently came out and revealed to me that this is apparently an ongoing series. The jury is still out on how I feel about that.

Back to this book! Cassandra Clare has developed these characters in a way that I really like. With the exception of Alec, Magnus, Jace and Clary, everyone has more depth and more character. Simon has turned into an alluring ladies-man. Isabelle is finally considering surrendering her heart to someone. She is possessing more human emotions this time around and I like this new vulnerability she now has. Maia's story unfolds and she has potential love re-introduced to her, Luke and Jocelyn and finding bumps in the road to their happy ending, and lots of interesting new characters are introduced. There's Jordan (Maia's ex), Camille (Magnus' ex and mega old vampire), and Lilith (the mother of all demons and Adam's first wife...yup...THAT Adam). Hijinks ensue.

The most unfortunate part of the story is how angst ridden Clary, Jace, and Alec are. Alec isn't around for the majority of the book, but when he shows up he is bitter because he has just realized that Magnus is crazy old and (shocker!) has had other lovers...male and female. Alec can't handle the constant reminder that he isn't going to live forever and is taking it out on Magnus. It is incredibly immature and I get tired of reading about it almost immediately after it begins. Jace is being cryptic and distant because he feels bad about being Valentine's son. He's having dreams that he's going to kill Clary and his answer to that is to kiss her senseless one moment and ignore her existence the next. I personally find this method far superior to just telling her what is up and using their logic to figure out an answer. They do that eventually, but we suffer through a couple hundred pages of him brooding and her being heart-broken and confused. I suppose we should be glad that he is a glutton for self-loathing because it is the reason that Sebastian comes back to life and creates a cliff hanger for the next book. If Jace would have taken the time to be with the people who care about him, we wouldn't have this seemingly endless series of books ahead of us. Maybe I'll end up being thankful...we'll find out.

Clare knows how to write a nice suspenseful climax in a story. She knows how to draw out the action and make it interesting. If she would apply that tone of writing to her main characters, I think the series could have a lot more staying power. As it is, I am so sick of the main characters that I look forward to sections that are about secondary characters. That's not good! If Clary and Jace could stop being the typical pair in all the YA books that people are tired of, these books would improve drastically.

I liked the book, I like the author, the pacing is nice, the action is interesting, and the book is rather hard to put down. Injecting some emotional maturity into the main couple will make all the difference. I will definitely keep reading the series to see how things turn out.

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Thirteen Reasons Why

Goodreads Synopsis:    

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.




Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I have to admit that I was so sucked into the story that I wasn't really paying attention to the writing style. I'm going to assume that I didn't mind the writing style because I didn't notice it.

That being said, I thought this book had a very powerful message to send. I thought that the message was realistically portrayed. The imagery was perfect and I could see this girl being taunted and bullied into killing herself. Ultimately, I don't know how I feel about the girl sending tapes to the people who tormented her. It serves them right but I don't know if that accurately portrays the mind-set of a girl who has been tortured into ending her life. It just seems like so much planning and scheming went into it and a girl who is in that much pain doesn't strike me as capable of pulling all of that off. Even less realistic is the random boy, who has no relationship with Hannah at all, ensuring that the tapes move on their path. What incentive does he have? That is never really explained. According to Hannah, he would have sent the tapes to the press and exposed all of the people who led this girl to kill herself. All of these things might lead people to think that I didn't like the book. This is not the case. I was impacted by this book more that I could ever express in words.

I don't know what about it got to me so much. Maybe it was all of the misunderstandings that led up to this girl wanting to commit suicide. Maybe it was that we were following the story of the one boy that she felt she needed to explain herself to. She wanted him to know that he wasn't a factor but that she needed to tell him her story. She needed to let him into her world. She viewed him as the one good person she knew and she wanted him to know how she felt about him. Following Clay's feelings and reactions to her tapes was a powerful and sad journey. I was so attached to Clay and wanted him to feel better. He wanted nothing more than to turn back the clock and make Hannah feel wanted and appreciated. The other people on her tapes were probably glad she was gone. They wouldn't want the things that they did to her to become public knowledge. For some of them, it would destroy their image. For others, it could have them put in jail. I wouldn't have wanted to read this story from any other perspective.

I went on the journey of a girl who was bullied and victimized and made to feel less that human. I read that the girl cried out for help in many ways and was totally ignored or brushed off. These are things that I believe happen every day. Parents, teachers, and students ignore problems because they don't want to believe that it could be happening. This book definitely spoke to an issue that is prevalent in schools today and Jay Asher did a wonderful job. I have already recommended this book to many people and I hope that it impacts them the way that it did me.

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The Replacement Wife

Goodreads Synopsis:
 Camille Hart, one of Manhattan’s most sought-after matchmakers, has survived more than her fair share of hardships. Her mother died when she was a young girl, leaving her and her sister with an absentee father. Now in her forties, she has already survived cancer once, though the battle revealed just how ill-equipped her husband Edward is to be a single parent. So when doctors tell Camille that her cancer is back—and this time it’s terminal—she decides to put her matchmaking expertise to the test for one final job. Seeking stability for her children and happiness for her husband, Camille sets out to find the perfect woman to replace her when she’s gone. But what happens when a dying wish becomes a case of “be careful what you wish for”? For Edward and Camille, the stunning conclusion arrives with one last twist of fate that no one saw coming.

 The Replacement Wife by Eileen Goudge
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I started this book with a lot of excitement. The plot sounded so heart-breaking and real. I thought that Eileen Goudge had found something sensitive and touching to write about. I was right. This book was wrought with frailty and human emotions that are very easily believed. I cared about all of the characters and wanted so much to see them become whole again. That is where the book's short-comings come in.

First of all, the characters were over-detailed and over-developed. I usually have the opposite problem so this was a strange feeling. The book was about 100 pages too long to get her point across beautifully. That problem caused all of my other issues with the book. Goudge gave too much information about the side characters. There were conversations that Camille would have or Elise would have with people that just went on and on about the other person's life. They weren't important enough characters to the plot for me to need to know that much about them. If Goudge would have cut all of the extra junk out, the book would have been more reader friendly. It would have had better pacing and been a better length. I'm not intimidated by a long book. I just want the long book to be packed with relevant information. That was not the case with this book.

Goudge also broke my heart when she tidied up all the character's lives and made them happy. Everyone was coupled up (except Camille of course). Everyone was getting married, and happy, and getting along with everyone else. It was kind of sickening. She took the reality out of it at the very end and that makes me sad. It just doesn't make sense that all those people would find exactly what they need at exactly the same time. She really sold herself short by giving the book and ridiculously happy ending. She had me hooked until then.

All in all, I like the book. It could have used a little tidying up, but it was heartfelt and nice. I would definitely read other books by this author.

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