Under the Skin

“It's terrifying to be on the verge of finally getting what you want.”  I came onto my blog intending to write a post about my feelings in regards to my recent change of location.  However, I decided that I should hold off all evaluation until I actually have a bed.  I do like Cincinnati, but I think it will be a more accurate representation of my full feelings when I'm not getting cricks in my neck anymore. That's right.  I don't have a bed.  The moving people said that they were going to be here on the 11th.  They technically only guaranteed the 19th, but that's what they told me.  Just saying.  Well, they're still not here.  But...they should be here on the 18th.  Only two more nights sleeping on my window seat. So, I have a book review instead. This is a series that kept on coming up on my Goodreads recommendations.  So, I gave it a read.  Mary Quinn is a street orphan who is offered something valuable in Vic...

It has come to my attention that I have not done my July New Year's Resolution Check in.  Well, today, I will rectify that. I must let everyone in on some perspective, though.  In January, I got a concussion.  It took me MUCH longer than I would have ever anticipated to recover from that.  As such, a lot of these past two months has been me recovering from that fact.  So, I'm failing on a lot of my New Years Resolutions.  But there is time to recover from that, as well.  Health Goals: Eat at least one meal every day:  Umm...about that.  I have spurts.  But right now isn't one of those spurts Carry around a water bottle: Yeah, I'm absolutely failing at that. Remain at a weight I'm happy with (because you have to have a weight-based New Year's Resolution, it's tradition): Yep. Writing Goals First edit of novel "War to End All Wars:" I need to do this. Finish first edit of novel "Passing the Setting Sun:"  I haven't even ...

"I could have done something else you know. Something more glamorous, but I choose to stay here."   I had a book review that I was extremely excited for (and worry not, it is in the works), but first an ARC review. For those who are not familiar with ARC reviews, if you are really into books and really into reviewing books, you can do ARC reviews.  ARC stands for "Advance Reader Copy."  Basically, this book is not yet published. But I got a copy for the express purpose of reviewing it for its impending publication. I've always kind of thought it would be fun to do some ARC reviews.  So, I took the plunge.  Maybe I'll do some more in the future.  Maybe not, but it's kind of fun. So, disclaimer that you  have to include when you do ARC:   I was given an advanced reader copy by the author in exchange for an honest review.   Oliver Brixby takes a...

My maternal grandmother's favorite poem was John Donne's No Man Is an Island .  As this grandmother passed away before my birth, I have spent a fair bit of my life trying to connect with her through things she loved:  her favorite poem, her favorite book ( A Tree Grows in Brooklyn ), her love of opera, her kinship with the people of Hawaii and their music and dance (she was a school teacher there), and other things. I try to understand her through quilting, which was very important to her, but I just couldn't do that. It requires spatial reasoning, which I do not have. The point being, I have pored over this poem a lot.  I have come to the conclusion that many people don't understand this poem.  No man is an island entire of itself; every man  is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;  if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as  well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own  we...

“And what we students of history always learn is that the human being is a very complicated contraption and that they are not good or bad but are good and bad and the good comes out of the bad and the bad out of the good, and the devil take the hindmost.”  We've talked about how the lab scientists like to have book discussions late at night, and how we all like to read each other's favorites, right?  Well, this is a find from one of those. To be honest, I'm rather shocked at myself that I had never even heard of this book (nor of its movies)...sorry. However, now that I've read it, it is quickly going onto my list of favorites, so I'm quite glad that I did. Willie Stark is just a country lawyer.  He likes his life, he likes his wife, he likes his family, his friends, and everything else that he has worked for and been blessed with.  Then, a man comes and asks him to run for a minor political office, saying that he's just what is needed--someone down...

Well guys, in the next two months the following will happen: 1) I will leave Salt Lake City 2) I will move to Cincinnati 3) I will run Camp Little Oak 4) I will start my PhD.  As such, my mind power to come up with blog stuff is dwindling.  But I will continue the book reviews, as I can write them if I have a topic.  I just can't come up with other topics right now.  But perhaps when I settle into my new routine, I will be able to do that. Today's book review is of a series which I don't recommend starting.  Not because it isn't any good. It's actually fairly likeable.  I only don't recommend it, because I did start it and now I'm very let-down, as the fifth and last book of the Theodosia Throckmorton Series, Theodosia and the Flame of Sekhmet, which was supposed to come out in 2012, still hasn't. And now I'm just sitting here waiting.  Yep... Theodosia Throckmorton has a problem.  Her parents, who run the Museum of Legnds and Antiquities, ha...

“There are some things you don't learn about yourself until you let someone else into the most intimate places of your heart.”  So, we're making some progress here about how many books I sstill have to review.  Today, I get to write a scathing review, and those are always quite fun to write, for better or for worse. So, here we are. Remember The Selection series? If you don't, you can read that scathing review (I must add, however, that my younger sister has since realized they are trash).   But, basically it is best described as a cross between Hunger Games and the Bachelor.  But not in the exciting way that you could imagine they cross.  The other sides crossing. It's just bad.  Well, we finished it and I let out my breath, quite relieved that I didn't have to worry about this anymore.  Unfortunately, the author is now continuing the series with the main characters' daughter.  And she's marketing it as a continuation of the series, not ...